Zeynep Sonmez v
Wikipedia - Zeynep Sönmez
Zeynep Sönmez (born 30 April 2002) is a Turkish professional tennis player. She has career-high rankings in singles of world No. 90 by the WTA, and in doubles of No. 584. Sönmez has won four singles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. She is the current No. 1 Turkish player.
Sönmez competes for Turkey in the Billie Jean King Cup, where she has a win/loss record of 5–3 as of September 2024.
History
2023: WTA Tour debut, Turkish No. 1
In June 2023, Sönmez made her WTA Tour debut at the Libéma Open in Rosmalen, Netherlands as a qualifier. She reached her first WTA 125 final at the Zavarovalnica Sava Ljubljana, but lost to Marina Bassols Ribera in straight sets.
2024: First WTA title, Major & top 100 debuts
Sönmez made her WTA 1000 debut as a wildcard into the Qatar Ladies Open but lost to Lesia Tsurenko. Ranked No. 157, she qualified for her first Grand Slam main draw at the French Open by defeating Dejana Radanović, Aliaksandra Sasnovich, and Jana Fett in qualifying. She was the first Turkish woman to play in the main draw of the French Open since Çağla Büyükakçay and İpek Soylu in 2017.
In the beginning of the grass court season, she qualified for the main draw at the Berlin Ladies Open with upset wins over two qualifying seeds, top seed Dayana Yastremska, her first top 30 win, and ninth seed Emina Bektas. She then defeated lucky loser Arantxa Rus in the first round, recording her first WTA main-draw win. She lost to Victoria Azarenka in the round of 16. As a result, she reached a new career-high singles ranking of No. 136 on 24 June 2024 before the Wimbledon Championships, where she reached the third round of qualifying.
In September, Sönmez reached her first WTA Tour quarterfinal at the Jasmin Open, going through qualifying, and defeated Rebeka Masarova and sixth seed Greet Minnen. She was the first Turkish player to reach a quarterfinal on the tour since 2017, after both Çağla Büyükakçay and Başak Eraydın made quarterfinals in Istanbul. She lost in the last eight to Eva Lys. Ranked No. 148, at the WTA 500 Pan Pacific Open, she qualified for the main draw and upset seventh seed Magdalena Fręch for her second top 30 win.
In November, at the Mérida Open Sönmez defeated sixth seed María Lourdes Carlé, Elsa Jacquemot, top seed Renata Zarazúa, reaching her first WTA semifinal, and finally Alina Korneeva, making her first final. She defeated Ann Li in straight sets to win her first tour-level singles title and became the first player from Turkey to win a WTA singles title since Çağla Büyükakçay in Istanbul in 2016 and only the second overall. As a result, she reached the top 100 for the first time in her career at world No. 91 on 4 November 2024.