British duo pull off first-round shocks at SW19

SONAY Kartal and Arthur Fery pulled off major upsets as Britain’s large singles cohort made a brilliant start to the Wimbledon fortnight.

- By ELEANOR CROOKS, PA

British number three Kartal and wild card Fery took out the respective women’s and men’s 20th seeds, with the former seeing off Jelena Ostapenko 7-5 2-6 6-2 and the latter defeating Alexei Popyrin 6-4 6-1 4-6 6-4.

For Fery, it is by a long distance the biggest victory of his life, with the 22-year-old’s only top-100 win before this coming against then 99th ranked David Goffin two years ago.

Fery, whose French father Loic owns Lorient football club, was not in the initial batch of wild cards named by the All England Club hav-ing seen his ranking drop outside the top 400 because of injury but a strong week at the second-tier Challenger event in Nottingham earlier this month earned him a pass.

He took advantage of it spectacularly to claim a first Wimbledon victory, and he will hope there is more to come with an unseeded opponent up next.