𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Sonay Kartal does not only have a Wimbledon quarter-final in her sights, but also the British number one spot.

Kartal is the only British woman left in the singles draw after Emma Raducanu’s brave defeat by top seed Aryna Sabalenka on Friday night.

Should she beat Russian veteran Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the 23-year-old will become the first home female player to reach the last eight since Johanna Konta in 2019.

The Brighton pro will also overtake Raducanu and Katie Boulter to become the country’s top-ranked woman.

That was unthinkable a year ago, when Kartal was ranked 298, and frankly still unlikely a week ago.

But Kartal has shown remarkable resilience and intensity to go with her immense talent in victories over Jelena Ostapenko – the 20th seed – Viktoriya Tomova and Diane Parry.

“The drive comes from myself,” she said. “I’m super disciplined. I’m super determined. When I set my mind to something, I want to achieve it.

“I want to prove to myself that I can do it, as well. I’d say the drive is 100 per cent me.”

Kartal made her Wimbledon breakthrough last year, reaching the third round before bowing out to Coco Gauff, and has made superb progress ever since.

She felt like she had really arrived on the WTA Tour after picking up a win over a top-20 player, against Beatriz Haddad Maia, at Indian Wells in March.

“Definitely this week,” she added. “But I would say maybe really Indian Wells for me. I felt like I had good matches, had my first top-20 win there.

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“I think even though I maybe haven’t backed the results up as much as I would like to prior to this, on the clay as well, I felt like I’d go one or two rounds, then lose the round.

“I still felt like in the matches I won and lost, the ones I lost I felt like I was improving. I felt like the margins I lost by in each match I was making smaller.

“I think it is an accumulation. Definitely this week will help me massively moving forwards.”