Latest news with #BenReeves
Daily Mail
06-07-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Sonay Kartal's dad owns a kebab shop, she loves tattoos and she wears retro baggy whites - the rising British talent is Wimbledon's most unlikely star, writes MATTHEW LAMBWELL
Look back at the career of any tennis player and there is a sliding doors moment when, unbeknownst to them at the time, their life changes course. For Sonay Kartal, that moment came at the age of six. 'So at my club, we used to do this thing called the lines game,' she begins. 'It's like a little warm-up. They'd shout 'service line' or 'tram line' and all the kids had to run to that line. 'That was always the first game and I was too shy for three months to actually come on court. The coach, Julie, finally managed to get me on court, I tried to run, tripped over, burst into tears, off I went and didn't come back for a good couple of months.' So that could have been that. But coach Julie Hobbs worked away on the shy little girl until eventually she returned, taking the first step on a yellow brick road leading all the way to Centre Court. On Saturday afternoon, Kartal will open proceedings on tennis's most august arena, making her first appearance in the fourth-round of a Grand Slam. If she can get past Russian veteran Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova she will become the British No1. And watching on from the stands will be Hobbs and Ben Reeves, who together have coached Kartal from her very first days at the Pavilion and Avenue Tennis Club in Hove all the way to the world's top 50. 'When I first appeared on the tour people were saying, 'Do you think you should get a coach that has already done it?' But I didn't want that at all,' says Kartal. 'I have coaches that have taken me from a six-year-old to the WTA Tour - I think that shows they know what they are talking about. We both just learned together. We're doing this crazy thing together.' It really is crazy - wonderfully so. There are so many reasons why Kartal should not have been a tennis player: she is not from the traditional tennis heartland of greater London and the home counties. She is 5ft 4in in a game where height is might. She comes from a modest background, the daughter of a Turkish restauranteur. That all makes her run here not just heartwarming but important. Every victory here has been a victory for the outsider; a clarion call to those who feel locked out of the gilded gates of British tennis. The toned arms with which she generates a huge amount of topspin also feel important, at a time when AI images of the 'perfect' female body flood the internet. 'I think a lot of girls are getting more comfortable with having more muscle on their body,' says Kartal. 'I don't think anyone should feel like girls have to look a certain way and I think that's changing in tennis as well - everyone's all different physiques and sizes and heights. 'If I can inspire kids, whether that's boys, girls, that's good.' Even with those muscles, there is a sliding door. 'I wasn't always strong,' says Kartal. 'I used to hate fitness back in the day but lockdown happened and I had nothing to do. 'I turned to it as a bit of an escape, something to do for a bit of fun. I didn't have crazy weights or anything (she was 19 at the time of the first lockdown) so it was just for running or bodyweight stuff and I absolutely loved it. 'So when it opened back up I'd go to the gym, stick my headphones in and just forget about the world.' In typical Kartal fashion, her gym was just a normal budget high-street chain. With a minimal £250,000 injection to her bank account after this fortnight, Kartal can certainly afford something more exclusive - and given her rising profile that could be wise. 'Yeah, it was getting a bit tricky prior so I do think I'll have to move,' she says sadly. 'But to be honest they were actually pretty respectful there, they would just say hello and let me get on with it. So maybe I'll have to test that when I'm back.' For all the wonder of this week, one feels like Kartal is looking forward to getting back to Brighton, where she still lives in the family home. Her father moved over from Turkey and opened two restaurants - a kebab takeaway and a sit in restaurant. Kartal would eat in there sometimes - but never ventured into the kitchens. 'Unfortunately I'm not a very good cook,' she says. 'He definitely would not have me in there.' It was in one of those Turkish restaurants when the first links between Kartal and the Lawn Tennis Association were formed. An LTA employee was in there having a meal, Mr Kartal spotted him and said words to the effect of, 'You should have a look at my girl.' But it was only really in 2021 that Kartal was fully embraced by the national setup. Until she was 13 she played a lot of football and cricket too. She was always up front in football; in cricket she just whacked it. 'Honestly, cricket, I was only good because of tennis,' says Kartal. 'I played left-handed and was just backhanding it, launching it as far as I could. 'I was a bit tomboy and super sporty, I loved football. I used to go to my local park with my dad and just kick the ball around. I absolutely loved it.' When I first met Kartal as she emerged on to the tour, she did not say much. She got through her press conferences politely but as quickly as possible. It was a little like the six year old who was too shy to take the court for the line game. But as her game has developed so has her confidence. Perhaps also she has begun to realise how interesting she is; how cool she is. Her baggy, retro Adidas kit which is fast becoming iconic; her 14 tattoos with more to come; the Turkish restaurants, the two coaches who have been with her all the way - none of this is normal. Here at Wimbledon she sticks out like a sore thumb; a thumb raised towards the tennis highway, hitching a lift towards the top.
Daily Mail
05-07-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Out of Emma Raducanu's shadow, the new British hope Sonay Kartal is relishing her debut on Centre Court
Look back at the career of any tennis player and there is a sliding-doors moment when, unbeknown to them at the time, their life changes course. For Sonay Kartal, that moment came at the age of six. 'So at my club, we used to do this thing called the lines game,' she begins. 'It's like a little warm-up. They'd shout "service line" or "tram line" and all the kids had to run to that line. 'That was always the first game and I was too shy for three months to actually come on court. The coach, Julie, finally managed to get me on court, I tried to run, tripped over, burst into tears, off I went and didn't come back for a good couple of months.' So that could have been that. But coach Julie Hobbs worked away on the shy little girl until eventually she returned, taking the first step on a yellow brick road leading all the way to Centre Court. On Sunday afternoon, Kartal will open proceedings on tennis's most august arena, making her first appearance in the fourth round of a Grand Slam. If she can get past Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, she will become the British No 1. And watching on from the stands will be Hobbs and Ben Reeves, who together have coached Kartal from her very first days at the Pavilion and Avenue Club in Hove all the way to the world's top 50. 'When I first appeared on the tour people were saying, 'Do you think you should get a coach that has already done it?' but I didn't want that at all,' says Kartal. 'I have coaches that have taken me from a six-year-old to the WTA Tour — that shows they know what they are talking about. We both just learned together. We're doing this crazy thing together.' It really is crazy — wonderfully so. There are so many reasons why Kartal should not have been a tennis player: she is not from the traditional tennis heartland of greater London and the home counties. She is 5ft 4in in a game where height is might. She comes from a modest background, the daughter of a Turkish restaurateur. That all makes her run here not just heartwarming but important. Every victory here has been a victory for the outsider, a clarion call to those who feel locked out of the gilded gates of British tennis. The toned arms with which she generates a huge amount of topspin also feel important, at a time when AI images of the 'perfect' female body flood the internet. 'A lot of girls are getting more comfortable with having more muscle on their body,' says Kartal. 'I don't think anyone should feel like girls have to look a certain way and that's changing in tennis as well — everyone's all different physiques and sizes and heights. If I can inspire kids, that's good.' Even with those muscles, there is a sliding door. 'I wasn't always strong,' says Kartal. 'I used to hate fitness back in the day but lockdown happened and I had nothing to do. I turned to it as a bit of an escape, something to do for a bit of fun. I didn't have crazy weights or anything (she was 18 at the time of the first lockdown) so it was just for running or bodyweight stuff and I absolutely loved it. 'So when it opened back up I'd go to the gym, stick my headphones in and just forget about the world.' In typical Kartal fashion, her gym was just a normal budget high-street chain. With a minimal £250,000 injection to her bank account after this fortnight, Kartal can certainly afford something more exclusive — and given her rising profile that could be wise. 'Yeah, it was getting a bit tricky already so I do think I'll have to move,' she says sadly. 'But they were pretty respectful there, they'd just say 'hello' and let me get on with it. So maybe I'll have to test that when I'm back.' For all the wonder of this week, one feels like Kartal is looking forward to getting back to Brighton, where she still lives in the family home. Her father moved from Turkey and opened two restaurants — a kebab takeaway and a sit-in restaurant. Kartal would eat in there sometimes — but never ventured into the kitchens. 'Unfortunately I'm not a very good cook,' says Kartal. 'He definitely would not have me in there.' It was in one of those Turkish restaurants when the first links between Kartal and the Lawn Tennis Association were formed. An LTA employee was having a meal, Mr Kartal spotted him and said words to the effect of, 'You should have a look at my girl'. But it was only in 2021 that Kartal was fully embraced by the national set-up. Until she was 13 she played football and cricket, too. She was always up front in football, in cricket she just whacked it. 'Honestly, cricket, I was only good because of tennis,' says Kartal. 'I played left-handed and was just backhanding it, launching it as far as I could. I was a bit tomboy and super sporty, I loved football. I used to go to my local park with my dad and just kick the ball around. I absolutely loved it.' When I first met Kartal as she emerged on to the tour, she did not say much. She got through her press conferences politely but as quickly as possible. It was like the six-year-old who was too shy to take the court for the line game. But as her game has developed, so has her confidence. Perhaps also she has begun to realise how interesting she is, how cool she is. Her baggy, retro adidas kit which is fast becoming iconic, her 14 tattoos with more to come, the Turkish restaurants, the two coaches who have been with her all the way — none of this is normal. Here at Wimbledon she sticks out like a sore thumb — a thumb raised towards the tennis highway, hitching a lift towards the top.
Daily Mail
05-07-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Why I was right about Cameron Norrie and Sonay Kartal as their stunning Wimbledon runs continue, writes DAN EVANS
It has been an emotional week for me. I didn't expect all that to come out in my press conference but that's the beauty of sport - these things aren't planned, they just happen. It's good for the fans and everybody who's involved in the sport to see that side of players, if that's me or whoever else. This run over the grass has been important for me to produce some good tennis, get some points and get the ranking moving but I still lost second round to Novak, which is frustrating when you look at the way the draw has opened up nicely for a lot of people. Looking ahead to Sunday, I was pretty bullish about Sonay and Cam's chances in my last column before the tournament and they have backed me up! For Sonay, she probably feels like she should be a bit more… not respected but more spoken about. People will probably think Sunday is a decent draw but I actually think it's very hard. Pavlyuchenkova's been playing good on the grass and is a former Grand Slam finalist. It's a tough match but Sonay has done great so far. It's a really special relationship she has with her coach Ben Reeves. If you've been with somebody that long, since the age of six, they're looking after you almost as a parent figure as you move into the pro ranks together and that's an amazing thing. It's very unusual that somebody's been with their coach from that age but it's nice they get to enjoy these moments now together. And as I said, there's never any worry with Cam. His draw certainly opened up but he has to take advantage of it and that's what he's made a career out of: beating the players he should. He plays Jarry next, I would say that's a 50/50 match, maybe Cam just about favourite. Off the court Cam is a very relaxed guy. He does his own thing. He's had the same team pretty much the whole way through his career - he's very loyal to those guys and in return they're loyal to them. He's had a long term girlfriend in Louise and they're all a very tight team. I saw that he spent a couple of days in Ibiza after the French Open and I think that's good. The scheduling of players is nowhere near as good as it used to be, they're playing way too much. Federer was the guy who started the idea of an abbreviated schedule and that should be done more - just taking some time off. Cam was golfing in Ibiza, I've played a bit with him…he's not the best golfer I've ever played with but he's got some interesting attire on the course - and off it for that matter. Some crazy colours and patterns. Talking of golf I saw Andy Murray and Carlos Alcaraz played a round before Wimbledon. I played with Carlos a few years ago and his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero - who is a very good golfer. Carlos is solid too, he can obviously do a lot of improving, but that takes time, doesn't it? And he doesn't have much time on his hands at the minute with how he's playing. Meanwhile, Kartal is up against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who's been playing good on the grass and is a former Grand Slam finalist To touch on Jack Draper, he was a bit negative about his grass-court game after losing in the second round to Marin Cilic but I don't see it like that. I think he just came up against a good opponent. What people don't understand is, Cilic just won the Nottingham Challenger and that counts for a hell of a lot to get those matches on this surface. Cilic, it doesn't matter what his ranking is, if he's got some matches in his legs he's going to be dangerous. To pull him second round is an awful draw.
