{"id":520479,"date":"2026-03-05T14:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T14:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/520479\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T14:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T14:40:09","slug":"im-grateful-for-it-pressure-is-a-privilege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/520479\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m grateful for it. Pressure is a privilege"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zeynep Sonmez<\/a> continues to make a steady impression on the WTA Tour after taking down a well-respected opponent in the form of McCartney Kessler 7-6(7), 6-0 to reach the second round of the Indian Wells<\/a> Open. Speaking to the Tennis Channel<\/a> after the victory, Sonmez was not getting ahead of herself with the praise being shrouded on her as she looks to enjoy her time on court.<\/p>\n

Kessler started much the brighter, going 3-0 ahead before Sonmez replied with a three-game spurt of her own. It was deadlock between the players, who both missed opportunities to break, ahead of a tiebreak. Both players missed a singular set point before the Turkish number one was able to get over the line. This seemed to spark her into life, winning 12 points on the spin at one point enroute to a 4-0 lead. She dropped just four points on serve in the second set and would see it out with real maturity and ease to book her spot in the second round.<\/p>\n

“It was a tough match,” she spoke after. “I didn\u2019t start very well, but she was playing very aggressively in the beginning and I needed to get used to it. So I said, you know, I need to take the advantage first \u2014 I need to go in a little bit more and play closer to the line. I think I did a good job, so I\u2019m very happy with my performance.”<\/p>\n

Feeling good energy in the desert despite heatSonmez was enjoying life already in her debut main draw appearance at Indian Wells<\/a>, exerting a whole heap of positive energy when on court, picked up by the interview Prakash Amritraj who compared it to the surrounding California desert. This was a reference enjoyed by Sonmez who described it as ‘perfect.’<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s just a bit hot, a bit warm, but there\u2019s no humidity, so that\u2019s good,” she described. “But today on court, when it was like 4\u2013all, I was like, ‘I need to rest a little bit.’ It was very hot. But I like being here. The view is amazing \u2014 it doesn\u2019t matter where you look from, it\u2019s stunning. So I like being here, definitely.”<\/p>\n

Amritraj later went on to describe her as someone who ‘never get too up or too down.’ This claim was instantly swiped away from the 23-year-old who disclosed that there is more than the eye can see.<\/p>\n

“Maybe I look like that \u2014 I\u2019m glad that I do. But there are times when I\u2019m very hard on myself. My team and my family are always saying, ‘Try to be easier on yourself. Give yourself some time and try to be patient.’ I\u2019m trying, but some days it\u2019s harder. Today was better, so I\u2019m happy with today.”<\/p>\n

Being recognised for her achievements – feeling better about herself<\/p>\n

She continued to showcase this positive persona while looking back on all the good things which has happened over the last year or so, changing her life for the better while earning a huge amount of recognition from her peers and comrades.<\/p>\n

“There are a lot of things that I\u2019m very grateful for. Last year, Wimbledon Championships was unreal, and this year the Australian Open was very good too.” She gave a special mention to her breakout WTA title win. “When I won my first title in M\u00e9rida Open, it was very special. I was there last week, and it\u2019s always good to be back. I think it affects my tennis too. I like being there, I love them, and they love me.”<\/p>\n

It is hard to not believe in yourself in a time like this with Sonmez riding the crest of a wave. “So I started to feel better about myself and better about my tennis last week, and I think it affected this week too,” she stated. “When I came here, I was feeling the ball well. Overall, I like being on the court. When I feel good, I play good too \u2014 that\u2019s what\u2019s happening right now. I\u2019m going to try to keep it going.”<\/p>\n

She is in awe of all the support from home and wherever she travels to, but not getting ahead of herself she senses the weight of pressure and expectation grow substantially on her shoulders.<\/p>\n

“It does come with pressure \u2014 I\u2019m aware of it,” she acknowledged. “There are a lot of people supporting me, but at the same time there are a lot of expectations too. But I\u2019m grateful for it. Pressure is a privilege. I\u2019m very happy about it \u2014 I just need to get used to it.”<\/p>\n

In the end, Sonmez is still tredding baby steps into tennis with her just trying to enjoy her time doing what she loves. “Everything is new for me too, and I think I\u2019m getting there slowly. I\u2019m trying to be easy on myself, because sometimes it gets very tough. But I\u2019m trying to enjoy every second on the court, because I know it\u2019s not that long of a journey. I\u2019m just trying to do my best and enjoy every single moment.”<\/p>\n

Improvements needed to break into top 50<\/p>\n

Ranked as high as world number 69, Sonmez is languishing slightly lower currently at world number 80 after that failed Merida Open title defence. She does, however, have huge potential to rise quite far in the sport with the potential already there to see.<\/p>\n

“I think I need to improve myself \u2014 I\u2019m aware of that, everyone tells me that,” she insisted. “We\u2019re trying to add small things, because it\u2019s not so easy when you\u2019re playing tournaments to change things in your game. At the same time you need to practise, but you\u2019re also playing matches.”<\/p>\n

A compliment she highlighted from today was that she had served well, and took this in her stride with patience for the rest of her game to also catch up. “So we\u2019re trying to make the changes as small as possible so they don\u2019t affect my game too much. I think we\u2019re going in a good direction, but it\u2019s going very slowly. For example, today my coach said that I had some good serves, so I\u2019m glad. All the best things take time. We\u2019re trying to improve things, and days like this \u2014 matches like this \u2014 give some confidence, which is always good.”<\/p>\n

These improvements would be critical if she was going to break more ground and make even more history for her country. In the previous four WTA 1000 events she has competed in, the 2025 Wuhan Open remains the only one, aside from Indian Wells 2026, where she has won a match, reaching the third round before losing in a tight match to Anastasia Potapova.<\/p>\n

She has the chance to draw level with her overall best WTA 1000 performance if she can take down Anna Kalinskaya. It is a first time meeting between Sonmez and the world number 22 with the Russian coming into good form having only been knocked out of the past three tournaments by some of the best players in the world.<\/p>\n

\"kalinskayamadrid\"\/<\/p>\n

Anna Kalinskaya is the next opponent for Zeynep Sonmez at Indian Wells 2026<\/p>\n

Kalinskaya drew glowing praise from her opponent. “She\u2019s a great player. I haven\u2019t talked to my team about the match yet, so I\u2019m not sure what we\u2019re going to do. I don\u2019t think I have a match tomorrow \u2014 I\u2019m not 100% sure \u2014 but I\u2019ll practise and we\u2019ll talk about the match and how I should play. We\u2019ll probably watch the match I played today as well. We have some time, so I\u2019m just hoping to play even better tennis and enjoy it.”<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zeynep Sonmez continues to make a steady impression on the WTA Tour after taking down a well-respected opponent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,259688,85,747,2637,63949],"class_list":{"0":"post-520479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-indian-wells","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-wta","14":"tag-zeynep-sonmez"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}