How Sonay Kartal & Cam Norrie can reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals

Kartal will play Ansatasia Pavlyuchenkova in her first ever match on Centre Court, before Norrie returns to his favoured No.1 Court to take on Chile’s Nicolas Jarry.

For 23-year-old Kartal, it’s a chance to make the last eight at a major for the first time, while for Norrie it would be a second time at SW19 having previously made the semi-finals in 2022.

Here we break down what both Brits will have to do if they are to win their fourth round matches this weekend.

Norrie to channel the crowd on pressure points

The former world No.8 has spoken extensively this week about his love for playing on the No.1 Court – channelling the high energy from the crowd to come through tough moments.

We saw it against 12^th seed Frances Tiafoe and in particular during a tight first set against Mattia Bellucci and the British star will be hoping he can use that energy come crunch time on Sunday.

So far this week, Norrie has won 47% of break points on his opponents’ serves, which is tied with world No.1 Jannik Sinner.

Equally, when serving in the pressure moments he has saved 71% of break points faced, which is 7% higher than the average across the draw.  

Kartal must remain solid on serve

While Kartal might not have the biggest serve in the world, so far this week, she’s made it effective on the grass.

The British No.3 has won 81% of her service games – only being broken six times in her first three matches, mostly from a shaky start in her matches against Jelena Ostapenko and Diane Parry.

Against an opponent who is only making 66% of her returns in compared to the draw average of 73% - it becomes even more important that Kartal is able to create an advantage when serving.

Return of serve crucial for a Norrie victory

Where Jarry has been most effective so far in the tournament has been on serve. The Chilean has hit 65 aces across his opening three matches – the second highest of anyone at The Championships, only behind Taylor Fritz.

He has clocked serves at 140mph and is winning 80% of points when he lands his first serve – 7% above the tournament average.

For Norrie to reach the quarter-finals he’s going to have to nullify Jarry’s serve with some equally effective returning.

The good news for the Briton is that so far this week, he is getting into the points more often when returning first serves, landing 69% of his returns compared to the average of 65%.

If Norrie can keep the ball in play from the opening shot and put his returns into awkward positions, he will no doubt make life very tricky for the 6’7” Chilean.

Kartal’s needs to win the baseline battle

So far on the Wimbledon grass, Kartal’s groundstrokes have given her opponents a lot of issues and her dominance in the baseline exchanges has been a standout this week.

Looking at the stats from the opening matches, Kartal is winning 54% of points at the baseline. To put that in context, that’s higher than top seed Aryna Sabalenka and level with USA’s Emma Navarro.

However, she’s up against an opponent with very similar statistics – winning 53% of baseline rallies. For Kartal to reach the quarter-finals, this feels like a battle she’ll have to win.