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<\/p>\nNot everybody was able to enjoy Sonay Kartal\u2019s run to the Wimbledon fourth round equally this summer. The last remaining Briton in the women\u2019s singles draw, the breakout star with a throwback fashion sense was revelling in her newfound spotlight, but Kartal\u2019s father, Muharrem, could barely bring himself to watch her debut on Centre Court. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents hardly come because my dad gets too nervous. Even if I\u2019m on the telly at home, he can\u2019t sit and watch. He paces up and down the corridor and shouts, \u2018What\u2019s the score?\u2019 to my mum in the other room,\u201d Kartal says.<\/p>\n
It has become a distinctly more familiar sight and ritual over the past 12 months. Kartal, who turned 24 on Tuesday, peaked at No44 in the world rankings after Wimbledon. She then claimed her first victory over a top-ten player, Mirra Andreeva, at the China Open last month \u2014 a win that Annabel Croft said would \u201csend a few shockwaves around the [WTA] Tour\u201d. <\/p>\n
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Kartal, now ranked No66, was beset by injuries throughout her teenage years and did not have LTA funding early in her professional career<\/p>\n
PETER TARRY FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n
Kartal\u2019s success has often been overshadowed by the focus on Emma Raducanu, but it has been a remarkably sharp upward trajectory for a player who was beset by injuries throughout her teenage years, struggled to break even after turning professional without funding, and was still ranked outside the top 1,000 when her former junior rival won the US Open in 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was always tough thinking, \u2018Am I actually going to be able to have a clear run [without injuries] and give myself the opportunity to try to make a living from tennis?\u2019 \u201d Kartal says. \u201cI definitely had micro-moments of, \u2018Do I really want to spend my life doing this?\u2019 But there are little parts of me that are super stubborn and I always believed that I had good potential. I knew if I didn\u2019t commit to the pro route, I\u2019d have a lot of regret later on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say the first time I genuinely believed in myself, rather than just hearing other voices say that you\u2019re talented, was Wimbledon last year [when she reached the third round], which is probably more recent than people would think. I think that was the actual moment where it was like, \u2018OK, I can kind of see it now.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
The goals, after a career-best season in which Kartal competed at all four grand-slam tournaments for the first time and earned nearly \u00a31million in prize money, have adjusted accordingly. \u201cI think getting into the top 30 is definitely doable, and I want to be consistently reaching the second week of the slams and WTA 1000 events,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
It is a fantastic underdog story in more ways than one. Kartal still works with Julie Hobbs (n\u00e9e Pullin), a former professional turned coach at Pavilion & Avenue Tennis Club in Hove, and splits her time between there and the LTA\u2019s National Tennis Centre in Roehampton. The partnership has endured since Kartal was six years old, when Hobbs finally coaxed her on to the court. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy brother is five years older and he would play in squads there a couple of times a week,\u201d she says. \u201cBeing the younger sister, you always want to copy your bother in everything, but I was super shy. The coaches would try to get me [to play] and I wouldn\u2019t even look at them. I\u2019d just sit on the bank and watch. It took about three months for Julie to get me to come on.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Kartal was the last Briton remaining in the women\u2019s singles as she reached the fourth round<\/p>\n
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER BRADLEY ORMESHER<\/p>\n
After Kartal fell over in the warm-up, she refused to play for another two months, but a family trip to Wimbledon the following year proved to be the seed of a dream. \u201cI remember sitting on Centre Court, I had a bright pink hat on that I was wearing backwards. We watched [Simona] Halep and I ran down and got her towel. I thought it\u2019d be so cool to be that person,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Kartal\u2019s father, who owned a Turkish restaurant and a kebab shop in Brighton, built a concrete wall in the family\u2019s back garden. After coming home from training, she would spend hours hitting balls against it and quickly became one of the country\u2019s best juniors \u2014 an old video circulated during Wimbledon of Kartal and Raducanu, who is a year younger, playing against each other at the National Tennis Centre back in 2011. \u201cI think from U9s to U14s . . . I would always play the Nationals and I think I won pretty much every age group back then,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
But a persistent wrist injury then prevented Kartal from playing for almost two years. As others progressed, she was overlooked for financial support from the LTA and had to rely on her father\u2019s modest income after turning professional in 2019. That occasionally meant travelling without her coach and sharing rooms with other players at early events in the likes of Turkey and Tunisia to cut costs. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt that point, you\u2019re definitely far from making a living in those kind of events, but winning some of them showed me I was going in the right direction and then I started to get the funding from the LTA, which propelled me forwards massively because it took off the financial stress of knowing I had to go and win a tournament to be able to break even,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
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Kartal reached the quarter-finals of last month\u2019s China Open, claiming her first win over a top-ten opponent in the process<\/p>\n
CHINA OPEN OFFICIAL 2025\/VCG VIA GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
\u201cI came from a super normal upbringing. Nothing was ever given to me. I had to work for everything and the way that I\u2019ve gone through my whole tennis journey, it\u2019s shaped me into the person I am. I developed a lot of the personality traits that help me in big matches: the determination, the willingness to give my best, the mental strength of growing up and not being given things on a plate. My parents sacrificed 17 years\u2019 worth of money and time to help me be in this position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kartal was always tremendously consistent from the baseline, but at 5ft 4in \u2014 the shortest player in this year\u2019s Wimbledon singles draw \u2014 she lacked the natural athleticism of many of her opponents. When the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, she trained twice a day in an attempt to put on muscle. \u201cBefore then, I viewed the gym as a bit of a chore, but it almost turned into a bit of a passion. I hadn\u2019t typically been fast, but after lockdown I was lighter and more explosive and powerful on the court, and movement is actually now one of my biggest strengths,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
Kartal climbed more than 600 places in the rankings in 2022, with Ben Reeves, also of Pavilion & Avenue, sharing more of the coaching responsibilities with Hobbs. \u201cThose two probably know me better than my parents, I\u2019ve spent so much time with them,\u201d she says. \u201cI think it\u2019s pretty rare. Not many people can say they\u2019ve had the same coaches for the past 17 years. It makes every win or achievement that much more special because you\u2019ve done it with people that have sacrificed a heck of a lot for you and have believed in you since you were six years old.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barring a medical issue at the start of 2024, Kartal\u2019s progress has been consistent and largely serene. Now ranked No66, she also remains distinctly down to earth and still lives at home in Brighton with her parents \u2014 and their American cocker spaniel \u2014 and trains at a local public gym. <\/p>\n
In contrast to the often manicured images in tennis, she rarely wears make-up, prefers the comfortability of boxy retro outfits, and has a penchant for celebrating her achievements with tattoos. Kartal now has 15, with the newest additions being the number 329 \u2014 her \u201cColour Holder\u201d after making her debut for Great Britain in the Billie Jean King Cup in April \u2014 and a thunder and lightning symbol, after a storm rumbled over SW19 just as she fulfilled her childhood dream by walking out on to Centre Court. It epitomises her relaxed demeanour that Kartal let the public choose what the latter tattoo would be, although she did ensure she had a veto.<\/p>\n