Wimbledon 2025: Sonay Kartal’s run comes to an end in fourth round defeat to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
Sonay Kartal’s bid for a first Grand Slam quarter-final has come to an end after the British No.3 lost out to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the fourth round.
While Kartal might have lost out to Pavlyuchenkova in a 7-6(3), 6-4 defeat on Centre Court, it was a tournament to remember for the Brighton-born star who will leave SW19 with her head held high.
The 23-year-old had become the fourth unseeded British woman to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon this century, joining Laura Robson (2013), Emma Raducanu (2021, 2024) and Heather Watson (2022).
Kartal has shown the world she has what it takes to challenge some of the world's best players, having knocked out 18th seed Jelena Ostapenko, Viktoriya Tomova and Diane Parry on her way to clocking her best Grand Slam run to date.
As a result of her fourth round run, Kartal will rise to a new career-high ranking inside the world's top 50 when the rankings next update.
"Yeah, obviously pretty devastated to not get the win," Kartal reflected on her loss. "Today she (Pavlyuchenkova) was seeing the ball so well, taking it super early right from the very first point. She played two games, which were almost unplayable for me.
"I think I did well to keep it as tight as I did. A few mistakes at not ideal times. I think that was the only difference today.
"I think tomorrow I'll probably wake up, and I can look back on this week and be super proud of it and step back and think - fourth round of a slam. It's the first experience, and for it being here, having beaten the players that I did to do that.
"I've gained confidence from the first match. So being four matches later on, I've got tonnes of confidence. I think on a surface that is not my natural surface, to get the wins against the bigger hitters, which I struggle with probably the most."
This week I've proved to myself that I can go deep into Slams, I can beat some of the best players on tour - I'm going to go away with a lot of motivation
Kartal has been broken in her opening service game in three of her four matches at the tournament so far, and today began in the same fashion as Pavlyuchenkova immediately clinched a 2-0 lead.
Despite the Brit recovering the deficit, the pair continued to exchange breaks throughout the opener as they looked to attack each other’s second serve. Kartal won 39% (7/18) points behind her second serve in the first set while her opponent won just 31% of points (5/16).
With the scoreboard locked at 4-4 and Pavlyuchenkova having the advantage, Kartal hit a backhand deep into the baseline which caused the 34-year-old to stop thinking it was out, but there was no 'out' call from the electronic line calling system.
The umpire soon announced to the players and crowd that the electronic line calling system failed to track the point and instructed the point be replayed, much to Pavlyuchenkova's dismay.
The British No.3 made the most of her opponent’s unsettledness on the re-start to break for a 5-4 lead but couldn’t hang on to it as we headed towards a tie-break.
Putting the disappointment behind her, the 34-year-old raised her level, quickly opening up a 4-1 lead before going on to take the first set.
Pavlyuchenkova looked to be carrying the momentum with her early into the second, as she clinched another early break which the Brit immediately recovered to stay level.
At 2-2, Kartal quickly trailed 40-0 on her serve as she hit a tired looking backhand into the net to hand over two break points. She managed to save the first before dragging a forehand wide to see the former Roland Garros finalist take the decisive break of the set.
The Briton fought to work her way into the return games but couldn't find the breakthrough as Pavlyuchenkova capped off victory with her 36th winner of the day.
Kartal will now take some time off before turning her focus to the US hard court swing, where she’ll compete in the main draw of the US Open for the first time in her career.
