Zeynep Sonmez made history as the first Turkish player in the professional era to advance to the third round of a Grand Slam tournament, defeating Xinyu Wang 7-5, 7-5 at Wimbledon on Thursday (July 3, 2025).
She wishes her victory means it won’t take too long for another Turkish player to get to that level.
“My mom and my team mentioned that there were videos of kids watching me at home and in tennis clubs on TV”, Sonmez shared. “I really hope they feel inspired or think, ‘Hey, we can do that too”‘.
Sonmez has a WTA title to her name from last year’s Merida Open, but she had been knocked out in the first round of three major tournaments before this. This marks her debut at Wimbledon.
No Turkish man or woman has reached the third round of a major tournament since the Open Era kicked off in 1968, though Cagla Buyukakcay did make it to the second round at three Grand Slams during 2016-17.
To find the last Turkish woman who got that far, you have to go back 75 years to when Bahtiye Musluoglu made it to the third round of the French Open in 1950.
The 23 year old Sonmez had a bunch of Turkish fans cheering for her in the stands and even took selfies with some of them after the match.
“I think there are so many Turkish folks around here, and it really makes me happy”, she mentioned.
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