Türkiye's Zeynep Sönmez creates history by advancing to Wimbledon third round
The 88th-ranked Sönmez will play Russian 18th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in the round of 32.
No Turkish woman or man had made the third round of a major since the Open Era began in 1968.
One has to go back 75 years to find the last Turkish woman to make it that far, when Bahtiye Musluoğlu reached the third round of the pre-professional French Open in 1950.
Çağla Büyükakçay made the second round at three majors between 2016-17.
Sönmez said she hoped her win ensured it would not be long before another Turkish player matched her achievement.
"My mum and the people in my team told me that there were videos where kids were watching me back at home, in tennis clubs on TV," Sönmez said.
"And I hope they get inspired or they feel like, 'Oh, we can do that too'."
Sönmez, 23, was supported by a number of Turkish fans in the crowd and took selfies with some of them after the match.
"I feel that there are a lot of Turkish people [here] and it makes me very happy," she said.
Sönmez has a WTA title under her belt, having won last year's Merida Open.
She lost in the first round in her three previous appearances at a major.
Sönmez, who enjoyed a career-high ranking of 76 in May, is making her Wimbledon debut.
AP/ABC
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The former world No.1, who's been a two-time champion at both the US Open and Australian Open, hadn't been in the last-32 for seven years She looked set to claim a small piece of personal history before failing to capitalise on two break points at 4-4 in set two and subsequently going down 3-6 6-4 6-4. Pavlyuchenkova, a Wimbledon quarter-finalist nine years ago, will next take on the soaring Briton Sonay Kartal, who had the home crowd cheering on No.1 Court as she defeated French qualifier Diane Parry 6-4 6-2 to make the last-16 of a grand slam for the first time in her career. The 23-year-old Kartal, ranked 298 this time last year, will now break into the top 50 and could even finish the tournament as British No.1, ahead of the Emma Raducanu and Boulter. American 13th seed Amanda Anisimova at least avoided the cull of seeds, as she beat Hungary's Dalma Galfi 6-3 5-7 6-3. 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3 hours ago
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Ben Shelton beats Rinky Hijikata in 69 seconds at Wimbledon after final game was delayed overnight
Australian Rinky Hijikata has not managed a single shot as American 10th seed Ben Shelton wrapped up their paused second-round Wimbledon match with four unreturnable serves. Two-time grand slam semifinalist Shelton needed all of about a minute and exactly four points — three of which were aces — to wrap up a 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Hijikata after their match was suspended the night before because of darkness at 5-4 in the third set. "Very different playing over two days and coming out for whatever that was — 55 seconds? — today," the 10th-seeded Shelton said. "I was hoping to maybe hit a few groundstrokes today. I might have to go to the practice courts." The American, who reached the final four at the 2023 US Open and this year's Australian Open, was about to try to serve out the match on Thursday at 9:30pm local time when action was halted on court two, which does not have a roof or artificial lights. They came back out to the same stadium a little less than 16 hours later and, after a warm-up period that was quite a bit longer than the actual play on Friday, Shelton began with a 227 kph ace. The 22-year-old left-hander then hit a second serve that resulted in a framed return by Hijikata, followed by an ace at 225 kph and one more at 190 kph to end things quickly. "You come out here, serving for the match, the nerves are there a little bit. To hit three aces and take the pressure off of myself, I couldn't have been happier with what I came out here and did," said Shelton, who will face 105th-ranked Márton Fucsovics of Hungary for a chance to reach the fourth round at the All England Club for the second consecutive year. Gold-medal-winning footballer and Shelton's girlfriend Trinity Rodman joked on social media: "Nothing like a 2-minute-long match. Congrats Benny." Shelton told the crowd: "I'm sorry that you guys didn't really get to see much tennis." Right before things were halted Thursday, Shelton held three match points while leading 5-3 and at 0-40 on Hijikata's serve, but the 87th-ranked Hijikata grabbed the next five points to extend the contest into what turned out to be a second day. "It was difficult. At that point we kind of knew we were playing in conditions that weren't ideal for tennis so for me it was like 'what's one more game?'," Shelton told ESPN. "I understand the tournament's got to make whatever decisions they make and players have got to live with it. For me, I lived with it, I came out today and did what I do." Shelton said he had had matches split over two days on three or four previous occasions at Wimbledon, which does not prize night-time sessions like the Australian and US Opens do. "This seems to be the tournament I usually split over two days," he said. "Whether it's rain or it gets dark out here, it's one of those tournaments that you've got to be able to adjust on the fly, get used to stopping, starting, re-warming up. It's part of what makes tennis fun." Shelton faced only three break points against Hijikata, saving all of them. "A great match," he said. "A clean match." AP/ABC
