Sonay Kartal produced one of the greatest turnarounds in Wimbledon history to reach the fourth round for the first time in her career – and bank £240k in the process. The British star had found herself 3-0 down in the opening set to French rival Diane Parry. But Kartal refused to panic – and reeled off an astonishing nine games on the spin to leave her opponent shell-shocked on Court One.
And it was too much for the world No.48 to cope with, as Kartal closed out a sensational 6-4, 6-2 triumph to make it into the second week. Kartal had defeated 20th seed Jelena Ostapenko and Viktoriya Tomova to reach the third round for the second successive year.
She appeared to be thriving at SW19, continuing her impressive rise through the rankings in the last 12 months. But French qualifier Parry promised to provide a stern test.
Parry had beaten 12th seed and world No.15 Diana Shnaider to set-up this Court One clash with her British rival. She also possessed a powerful forehand and sumptuous, slicing back hand.
Qualities she used to good effect to break Kartal’s opening service game and charge into a 3-0 lead. The omens didn’t look great for the home favourite.
But Kartal showed she is made of strong stuff, and launched a blistering fightback which saw her break Parry in the seventh game to get the set back on serve.
And it was the start of a stunning run which saw her go on to win five straight games, culminating in Parry smashing a simple forehand into the net on break point to concede the first set 4-6.
A set which had looked out of reach to Kartal just 40 minutes earlier. And if Parry thought the break might give her the chance to regroup, she thought wrong.
Kartal broke in the first game of the second set, held serve, then broke Parry again to go 3-0 up. She had now won eight games in a row. She then made it nine, and the next round was well within sight.
Parry finally held serve to stop the bleeding at 1-4, but way too much damage had already been done. There was no way back for Parry, and Kartal finished the job in style, before raising both hands to the skies.
Kartal was 864th in the world three years ago, but is now on the cusp of breaking into the top 50.
The 23-year-old has 14 tattoos and had promised to get another one, Wimbledon related, if she got this far. And with a guaranteed career-high pay day of £240,000 now in the bank, she can afford one.
Because Kartal is making her mark at these Championships, in more ways than one.
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