Sonay Kartal: The unlikely heroine flying the flag for Britain

With 14 tattoos, a retro range of baggy Adidas clothes, and a childhood spent around her parents’ kebab shop while struggling to afford tennis coaching, the sense that Sonay Kartal’s Wimbledon fairy tale could reach far beyond a traditional tennis fanbase is obvious.

We also now know that it was almost over before it started, with Kartal revealing ahead of her big Centre Court debut on Sunday how her baby steps in tennis – at the Pavilion & Avenue club in Brighton – became tinged with fear and anxiety.

“We used to do this thing called the lines game, it’s a little warm-up,” she said. “They’d shout, ‘service line’, and all the kids had to run to the service line. That was always the first game and I was too shy for three months to actually come on court. My coach Julie [Hobbs] finally managed to get me to do it. I tried to run to the outside tramline, tripped over, burst into tears. Off I went, and I didn’t come back for a couple of months.”

It is a story that plenty of parents and children will relate to, with Hobbs, a former British No 1, eventually coaxing her back to the sport. Fast forward 17 years and you did not need long around a packed Court 16 on Saturday to feel the impact that Kartal is having. Fresh from three brilliant singles wins, she was in doubles action alongside her friend Jodie Burrage in front of a distinctly youthful audience.

Kartal, who is now 23 and the last remaining British woman in the singles draw, hopes that her story can particularly inspire girls who are shy about sport.

“My coach has a daughter and she was super shy, got into tennis and has changed like a completely different person,” she said. “She’s got so much more personality, she’s so much more talkative.” And is playing sport becoming cooler for girls? “I think it’s changing,” she says. “I think now a lot of girls are getting more comfortable with having more muscle on their body. I think that’s turning, which is obviously incredible.

“I don’t think anyone should feel like girls have to look a certain way. I think that’s changing in tennis as well. You look at the tennis players, everyone’s all different physiques and sizes and heights. So, it’s definitely getting more versatile. If I can inspire kids, whether that’s boys or girls, then I’m obviously doing something good.”

Kartal played football and cricket at a similar level to her tennis until she was 13 and is a self-confessed sports lover. “I was a little bit of a tomboy and super sporty,” she said. “I loved football. My school actually used to have a lot of girls football and I used to go to my local park with my dad. In cricket I was always the batter and just launching [the ball] as far as I could.”

Saturday’s doubles might not have gone to plan – Kartal and Burrage were beaten in straight sets – but her partner could sense the buzz. Kartal had been informed that she would be first up on Centre Court at 1.30pm on Sunday against the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova just before stepping on court with Burrage.

“Her story shows there’s not one way to do what we do – but multiple ways,” said Burrage. “She has done incredible – and she is going to go a lot higher. For everyone out there, regardless of where you are from, you can do it if you put your mind to it – especially like this chick here. That’s the moral of this story.”

Kartal’s ranking has risen from 864 in 2022 to the world’s top 50 – she will overtake Emma Raducanu as the British No 2 once Wimbledon is done and dusted – and Burrage clearly does not think the story will end against Pavlyuchenkova. “I’ve got full belief,” she said.

There certainly seems little chance of the attention going to Kartal’s head. She was six when she made that first trip to a tennis club following an invitation from a tennis official who had eaten at one of her father’s two Turkish restaurants. And, while she was competitive against players like Emma Raducana through the British junior rankings, has largely progressed in senior tennis away from the limelight.

Kartal’s social media remains largely fixated with animals or food and, perhaps most telling of all, she has resisted inevitable pressure to change a coaching team that, as well as Hobbs, also still includes Ben and Martin Reeves from her original club in Brighton.

“I was hearing people saying, you know, ‘Do you think you should get a coach that has already done that?’ But I didn’t want that. If I can have a coach that can take me from a six-year-old to the WTA Tour, I think that’s obviously good enough. We just learned together. It’s kind of doing this crazy thing together.

Kartal did find herself being recognised during a “tricky” trip to the shops near Wimbledon on Friday night and her phone has been flooded with suggestions for her next tattoo. They have included one of Centre Court itself, a vintage polo shirt in recognition of her distinctive Adidas playing top and, from Burrage, an image of fire and ice. “I actually like that,” she said.

She has, until now, remained a member of the same no-thrills High Street gym in Brighton, although wonders if she may now have to review that arrangement. “It was getting a bit tricky prior [to Wimbledon]. But to be honest they were actually pretty respectful there [at the gym]. They would just say hello and then just let me get on with it. So maybe I’ll have to test that when I’m back. I go to the gym and just kind of have a bit of ‘me time’, stick my headphones in and just forget about the world.

“People think I don’t like [being in the spotlight], because I have gone under the radar my whole life but I don’t have an issue with being in the spotlight or not being in the spotlight. I’ll take it as a compliment.”