Wimbledon 2025: Sonay Kartal into the fourth round for the first time with win over Diane Parry
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Sonay Kartal is into the fourth round of Wimbledon for the first time in her career after clinching her first victory on No.1 Court against France’s Diane Parry.
The British No.3 knocked out the French star 6-4, 6-2 in an hour and 24 minutes to tick off another significant milestone in the 23-year-old’s career so far.
The win builds on an impressive start to SW19 where she has also knocked out 20th seed and former Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko at Viktoriya Tomova.
After going behind early, Kartal won 11 of the last 13 games to set up a fourth round clash with world No.50 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
She becomes the fourth unseeded British woman to make the fourth round at Wimbledon this century – joining Laura Robson, Heather Watson and Emma Raducanu.
“I think everybody could probably see from the level I started at that I was pretty nervous,” she said in her on-court interview after the match.
“It’s the biggest and most meaningful stage that I’ve played on. I’ve got a lot of people here and I wanted to do them proud, do myself proud.”
This time last year, Kartal was ranked as world No.298 and made headlines as she came through qualifying to eventually exit in the third round.
Fast forward 12 months and she’s now established as a top 50 player, has a WTA title to her name and has now made the fourth round of a major for the first time in her career.
“I’ve been a lot more consistent in my game,” Kartal said on the biggest changes over the last year. “I was doing a lot of good things on the practice court and playing with a lot of freedom, and I always trusted that I could transfer it onto the match court.
“Last year was the first time it really came out and with every week and each match that I’m playing I’m growing more confident as a player and as a person.”
Her next opponent will be 34-year-old Pavlyuchenkova who earlier in the day saw off four-time Grand Slam champion and former world No.1 Naomi Osaka in three sets.
“I’ve played some tough opponents – everyone in this tournament is an unbelievable player,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if I’m playing No.1 or 300 in the world, I have to respect that opponent and play the person at the other end of the net. I’m going to try my best to approach the next match as I have the past few matches and keep myself as chilled as possible off court.”
It’s the biggest and most meaningful stage that I’ve played on. I’ve got a lot of people here and I wanted to do them proud, do myself proud.
Both players had break point opportunities on each other’s opening service games but it was the Frenchwoman who tucked away an easy forehand winner to race out to an early three game lead.
Parry started out at a strong level but from 4-1 up, some key errors on pressure points gave Kartal an opportunity to fight her way back into the set.
Kartal was resilient from the baseline, forcing a lot of long rallies and was rewarded on a fifth break point after Parry missed an easy forehand on another lengthy exchange.
The break seemed to zap the energy from the world No.118 and Kartal took full advantage. The Briton won the final five straight games – finishing with a hold to love – to complete her opening set comeback.
Parry won 12/15 points at the net in the first set but could only muster one visit in the opening three games of the second set as Kartal kept her pinned to the baseline with her heavy top spin forehand.
The Frenchwoman was angrily conversing with her box in frustration after going down an early double break and the match looked all but won for the British No.3.
There were no signs of nerves serving out the biggest match of her life – bombing down a huge ace to set up match points before finding another unreturnable first serve to seal a landmark win.
