The last British woman at Wimbledon is Raducanu’s childhood rival ...Middle East

WIMBLEDON — When Sonay Kartal takes her place on Centre Court on Sunday, as the last British woman standing at Wimbledon, she will have more attention on her than ever before.

Until recently, Kartal’s claim to fame was a 43-second video on the LTA’s YouTube channel, of her as a nine-year-old sparring with Emma Raducanu.

The 19-shot point the video depicts (which Kartal won with a forehand down the line) has nearly 800,000 views.

But there is nothing like a Wimbledon run to hoist a player up from relative obscurity and into the British public’s consciousness.

When Kartal coolly won her third-round match at the All England Club earlier this week, her name was trending on Google search above Donald Trump.

On Sunday, a win for Kartal over former French Open finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova would not only boost her profile, but also push her ahead of Raducanu and Katie Boulter as the British No 1 and launch her into the quarter-finals at a grand slam for the very first time.

Not to mention the £400,000 in prize money she would be guaranteed – more than half of her current career earnings.

Kartal has had a whirlwind 12 months, rising from world No 298 at last year’s Wimbledon to now breaking into the world’s top 50 thanks to a last-16 run at Indian Wells and her first WTA title last September in Monastir.

Even through that success, the reality is that she remains somewhat of an unknown to the average British sport fan tuning in to Wimbledon.

Kartal grew up in Brighton, playing tennis from the age of six. She took somewhat of a scenic route as a junior and in the early years of her career.

A contemporary and friend of 2021 US Open champion Raducanu, she played against her as a junior, but juggled cricket and football alongside her tennis until she was 13.

Kartal did not have LTA funding to back her career until she was 19 either as, in her own words, she did not “deserve it” because she was “inconsistent” due to injuries.

She initially pushed her way up the WTA ladder via second-tier tournaments, but the last year in particular has been transformational.

Emma Raducanu and Sonay Kartal playing together when they were younger Now they're playing at the same time as each other on #Wimbledon Centre Court and Court One pic.twitter.com/95qa49LhOq

Something she has opted to keep the same throughout her rise is training at her childhood club in Hove, Pavilion & Avenue Tennis Club, and her coaching team of Julie Hobbs and Ben Reeves, who have been by her side since she was six years old.

“When I was making my first kind of appearance on the [WTA] tour, you know, I was hearing people were saying, ‘Do you think you should get a coach that was already done that?’ But I didn’t want that at all,” Kartal said, referring to Reeves.

“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, and it shows that he’s learning and he obviously is doing a good job. He knows what he’s talking about. We just added in a bit of guidance.

“We took different opinions and took advice from the other Brits that have done it. We both just learned together and [are] kind of doing this crazy thing together.”

While Kartal is nonplussed about the added attention around her, the one thing she does hope is that her presence at the forefront of British tennis might help to show young people that sportswomen come in all shapes and sizes.

At 5ft 4in and of an athletic build, she does not have your typical tennis frame: “I think now it’s a lot of girls are getting more comfortable with having more muscle on their body and things like that, and I think that’s turning, which is obviously incredible.

“I don’t think anyone should feel like girls have to look a certain way, which I think that’s changing in tennis as well.

“You look at the tennis players, everyone’s all different physiques and sizes and heights. It’s definitely getting more versatile, but if I can inspire kids, whether that’s boys, girls, whatever, I think I can do that then obviously doing something good.”

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Kartal became hooked on bodyweight sessions during lockdown, and currently works out at a regular high street gym in her local area: “I wasn’t always strong. [I used] to hate fitness back in the day.

“Lockdown happened, I had nothing to do. I turned to it as a bit of an escape. I just completely changed the way I viewed it. I absolutely loved it.

“So then when tennis started to kick back in, it was not a chore at all, I loved it and I’d go to the gym and just kind of have a bit of like me time and stick my headphones in, forget about the world, just listen to music.”

With this Wimbledon run, she admits that she might need to consider a gym change due to her new status.

“It was getting a bit tricky prior,” she said of trying to go unnoticed at the gym.

“I do think I’ll have to move. But to be honest they were actually pretty respectful there, like 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.”

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