'My game has come a long way fast... I'm here to stay'

Sonay Kartal expects to go deep into the Wimbledon fortnight in a women’s draw with strong British hopes.

- By Dom Smith

Talent and graft account for a great deal, but sport at the top level is as much about peaking at the right time as anything else. For British tennis players, this means raising their game for Wimbledon, something Sonay Kartal knows all about.

Sidcup-born Kartal was only 22 last summer when she became the first British female qualifier to reach the third round at Wimbledon since 1997. She pitched up at SW19 ranked 298th in the world yet knocked out 29th seed Sorana Cîrstea and world No45 Clara Burel before exiting to Coco Gauff on Court One. In five days, she had catapulted herself into the public consciousness.

A wildcard in 2022 and 2023, she came through qualifying in 2024. No need to qualify any longer. Last year’s run has been a ladder to help scale greater heights. In September, she reached her first WTA Tour quarter-final at the Jasmin Open in Tunisia, and then won it — a first major title of a career on an uninterrupted upward trajectory.

Knocking out Beatriz Haddad Maia in March represented a first win over a top-20 player for Kartal and was part of a run to the Indian Wells fourth round, ended by defeat to world No1 Aryna Sabalenka. Last month, the second round at Roland-Garros; this month, she beat world No16 Daria Kasatkina as women’s tennis returned to Queen’s after a 52-year hiatus. “Originally, [my aim] for 2025 was to break into the top 50,” she tells Standard Sport, now No49 in the world and aware a new, more ambitious, target is now required. “I will push to be top 30 by December. That would be great.”