Sonay Kartal’s dream run at Wimbledon 2024 has come to an end after American superstar Coco Gauff eliminated the British qualifier on Friday.
Kartal, ranked No.298 in the world, sensationally beat Clara Burel on Wednesday to become Britain’s first female qualifier to reach the third round since 1997.
The 22-year-old has been unable to go any further, though, understandably suffering defeat to a player who is 296 places above her in the WTA rankings.
Gauff, the current US Open champion who is seeded second in the women’s singles, conjured up a 6-4 6-0 victory on the No.1 Court to knock out the Brit.
The 20-year-old from Atlanta, Georgia went ahead in the first set with an early break despite the British crowd doing everything they could to boost Kartal, with shouts of ‘Come on, Sonay!’ from some passionate spectators under the roof.
Kartal then brilliantly managed to level it up in game eight to nearly take the roof off – as Gauff suffered her first break of the entire tournament so far – but the pressure then became too much as the American instantly restored her lead.
Having clinched the first set 6-4, Gauff went up a level and sealed a break in the first game of the second set, becoming more and more dominant as she eventually secured a 6-0 bagel and straight-sets victory against her British foe.
Sonay Kartal’s rapid rise in tennis
Casual tennis fans may not have known much about Sonay Kartal before this year’s Championships but the British star has now firmly burst onto the scene.
After three qualifying wins over Suzan Lamens, Sijia Wei and Erika Andreeva, Kartal dumped out 29th-seed Sorana Cirstea in the first round of the main draw before defeating Clara Burel to set up the dramatic showdown with Coco Gauff.
Speaking about her rapid rise in the sport, Kartal said: ‘I think physically I’ve changed a lot. Physicality wasn’t a strong point for me [in the past].
‘I changed that during lockdown pretty significantly. It went from a weakness to a strength really fast. I’d say that was the main thing.
‘I think just mentality of believing that I have high levels to reach. Just fully kind of believing in that, investing in that, and trusting that I’m going to have some losses, but the wins will follow shortly.’
Wimbledon prize money boosts Sonay Kartal
Sonay Kartal believes that the prize money she has scooped up at Wimbledon this year can help her go even further in women’s tennis.
‘I think it’s going to help me for a little while,’ Kartal added. ‘It will propel me into playing the bigger tournaments and be on the bigger stage, which is what I want to be doing at the end of the day.
‘Yeah, obviously it takes a little bit of stress away knowing that financially it will be okay.’
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