Historic Wimbledon victory for Zeynep Sönmez: 75-year record comes to an end

Zeynep Sönmez, who earned the title of the first Turkish female tennis player to reach the second round at the Wimbledon Grand Slam Tennis Tournament, faced world number 32, China's Xinyu Wang, in the second round. The national athlete started the first set of the match sluggishly and fell behind 4-1. However, refusing to give up, Zeynep Sönmez first leveled the score at 4-4 and then 5-5. From that point on, our athlete did not back down and broke her opponent's serve once again. Making no mistakes on her own serve, Zeynep Sönmez took the first set 7-5.

In the second set, Wang took a 1-0 lead on her own serve. Despite falling behind 40-15 in the second game, Zeynep Sönmez maintained her tenacious play to bring the score to 1-1. After 2-2, the national athlete managed to win the game where the Chinese player Wang was serving, gaining the advantage. However, our athlete could not capitalize on this advantage and was caught at 3-3. The struggle between the two tennis players continued in the subsequent service games. After 5-5, Zeynep Sönmez managed to break Wang's serve with brilliant shots and earned the right to serve for the match. Despite falling behind 40-0, Zeynep Sönmez won five consecutive points to take the set 7-5 and the match 2-0.

Having previously competed in grand slams at the 2024 French Open, Zeynep Sönmez became the first Turkish female tennis player to reach the third round at Wimbledon.

SHE BROKE MUSLUOĞLU'S 75-YEAR RECORD

In the history of Turkish tennis, the only person to achieve the success of playing in the third round of singles in grand slams (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open) had been Bahtiye Musluoğlu. Musluoğlu competed in the French Open in 1950 and reached the third round. For 75 years, no other Turkish tennis player had repeated this achievement by Musluoğlu in singles.

Zeynep Sönmez has now become the first Turkish tennis player to play in the third round of a grand slam in 75 years.

2ND ROUND IN SINGLES, 3RD ROUND IN DOUBLES

Apart from Bahtiye Musluoğlu and Zeynep Sönmez, only two of the 6 other tennis players who have represented Turkish tennis in grand slam organizations have seen the second round in singles.

In the men's category, Marsel İlhan reached the second round 3 times at the US Open (2009, 2011, 2015), twice at Wimbledon (2010, 2015), and once each at the French Open (2011) and the Australian Open (2010).

In the women's category, Çağla Büyükakçay experienced the excitement of the second round twice at the French Open (2016, 2017) and once at the US Open (2016).

Marsel İlhan, who appeared in the grand slam singles main draw 12 times, was eliminated in the first round 5 times, while Çağla Büyükakçay and İpek Soylu were eliminated twice each, and Nazmi Bari, Cem İlkel, and Zeynep Sönmez were eliminated once each.

In the women's category, Turkish tennis player İpek Şenoğlu reached the third round in doubles in grand slam organizations. Standing out in the doubles category, Şenoğlu achieved the success of reaching the third round with her foreign partner in the US in 2004 and at Wimbledon in 2009.

News Source: 12punto