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The Guardian
09-07-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Sportswomen facing ‘horrific burden of routine misogynistic attacks and threats', campaigners say
For Sonay Kartal, there was disappointment but a sense of pride as she walked off Centre Court to a standing ovation when her fairytale Wimbledon run came to an end. Footage of the bittersweet moment, posted on SW19's official Facebook page, prompted praise for the 23-year-old British No 3 – and a slew of cruel comments about her appearance. Campaigners said it is sportswomen 'who uniquely face the horrific burden of routine misogynistic attacks and threats' after tennis players including Katie Boulter and Jodie Burrage have spoken out against trolls in recent weeks. On Wednesday, about 1,000 comments on two of Wimbledon's Facebook posts about Kartal, who reached the fourth round of a grand slam for the first time, had been deleted. But hateful comments had remained online for at least 24 hours. A spokesperson for the All England Club said: 'Wimbledon's social analytics tool automatically rates comments by sentiment and flags posts with a high proportion of negativity. 'Our digital team also does a significant amount of manual moderation of comments across all of Wimbledon's official social channels with the aim of removing inappropriate content as soon as possible.' The former Wimbledon champion and British No 1 Johanna Konta, 34, said the club should be doing more to delete abusive comments on its accounts. 'I think obviously they probably do [delete comments], it's just there's always going to be a lag. Unless someone is there constantly with their finger on the trigger. It's tough,' she added. 'I highly doubt that Wimbledon are not actively looking to make sure that their site is clean and as devoid of abuse as possible. They're not looking to abuse their own players that's for sure, but it's hard, how do you keep it fully clean?' Wimbledon has an AI-driven social media monitoring service, Threat Matrix, that monitors players' public-facing social media profiles and automatically flag death threats, racism and sexist comments in 35 different languages. The service is supported by people monitoring the accounts. Wimbledon said on Wednesday that the Threat Matrix had analysed 150,000 posts to date at this year's championships. 'Just under 10,000 posts have been flagged for human review, of which 2,504 have been risk assessed and triaged for further action – which could include reporting accounts to platforms and security/law enforcement escalation where required,' a spokesperson said. Stephanie Hilborne, the chief executive of the charity Women in Sport, said social media companies should become far stricter in blocking the accounts of those who promote misogyny. 'Currently they don't even list misogyny as a reason for reporting harmful content. There should be a zero-tolerance approach,' she said. 'Nor is it appealing to young girls and women to see your heroes subjected to this hate. Seeing this kind of attack is hardly going to inspire you to make it to the top; there is still a dream gap with only 38% of girls dreaming of becoming top athletes, compared to 59% of boys.' Naomi Broady, 35, the former world No 76, said all players received hate and she refuses to show the faces of her twin sons online because of the ugly side of social media. 'I think the WTA [Women's Tennis Association] do try to do what they can, but I think it has to come from the social media platforms,' she said. 'If they have algorithms that are able to prevent the spreading of misinformation … why can they not do it for the abuse as well?'
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Kartal misses out on first major quarter-final
Kartal's previous best run at a Grand Slam was to the third round of Wimbledon last year [Getty Images] Britain's Sonay Kartal missed the chance to reach a first Grand Slam quarter-final with defeat by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in a match that saw controversy over a faulty line call. It was a gallant effort from the 23-year-old, who ultimately succumbed 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 to the experience and know-how of former French Open finalist Pavlyuchenkova. Advertisement Play was halted by the umpire in the ninth game of the first set when Kartal's backhand dropped long but the electronic line-calling system failed to call it out and the point had to be replayed. Ranked 51 in the world, Kartal was already enjoying her best run at a Grand Slam having never gone beyond the third round. She was aiming to become the first British woman to reach the quarter-finals at SW19 since Johanna Konta in 2019. This time last year she was ranked outside the world's top 250 players but her efforts at the All England Club this week will see her attain a new career-high ranking after the tournament. Advertisement The rising star of British tennis will take comfort in her achievements - victory over a top-20 player in the first round, resilience to come from behind when needed and a memorable Centre Court debut in front of a partisan crowd at her home Grand Slam. Victory for world number 50 Pavlyuchenkova, 34, matches her 2016 run to the quarter-final at the grass-court major and she will face 30th seed Linda Noskova or 14th seed Amanda Anisimova next. In a contest reflective of the one place that separates the two in the rankings, there were six breaks of serve in a chaotic first set. Pavlyuchenkova's heavy-hitting style brought more winners but also more unforced errors as Kartal took advantage of her speed to chase the ball down, clearly unhampered despite the heavy strapping to her knee. Advertisement The Russian knew Kartal backs herself when it comes to movement but tried to wear her down. Having worked herself a break-back point at 3-2, Pavlyuchenkova pinged shots to one side of the baseline then the other, sending Kartal scurrying back and forth before cleverly deploying the drop shot - at which point Kartal stood with her hands on her hips in disbelief she hadn't won the point. That feeling of both players having to grind it out continued throughout the first set with more break points on both sides. The tension was ramped up further when on Pavlyuchenkova's game point on serve at 4-4, Kartal's backhand dropped long but the electronic line-calling system failed to call it. Advertisement Kartal then went on to break in a game that Pavlyuchenkova should have won and the Russian fumed at the change of ends but regrouped to put the controversy behind her and take the opening set after a tie-break. After a drama-filled one hour and 18 minutes, set two was a much lower-key affair. Pavlyuchenkova, perhaps fuelled by her frustration at the technology failure, turned up the pressure to break in the fifth game and that proved to be decisive as she served out victory to book her place in the last eight with a ripping forehand. For Kartal, it was an unfortunate incident that tinged her final match in a fearless run at the All England Club, which firmly cements her as a serious talent in the minds of the home crowd.
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Kartal misses out on first major quarter-final
Kartal's previous best run at a Grand Slam was to the third round of Wimbledon last year [Getty Images] Britain's Sonay Kartal missed the chance to reach a first Grand Slam quarter-final with defeat by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in a match that saw controversy over a faulty line call. It was a gallant effort from the 23-year-old, who ultimately succumbed 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 to the experience and know-how of former French Open finalist Pavlyuchenkova. Advertisement Play was halted by the umpire in the ninth game of the first set when Kartal's backhand dropped long but the electronic line-calling system failed to call it out and the point had to be replayed. Ranked 51 in the world, Kartal was already enjoying her best run at a Grand Slam having never gone beyond the third round. She was aiming to become the first British woman to reach the quarter-finals at SW19 since Johanna Konta in 2019. This time last year she was ranked outside the world's top 250 players but her efforts at the All England Club this week will see her attain a new career-high ranking after the tournament. Advertisement The rising star of British tennis will take comfort in her achievements - victory over a top-20 player in the first round, resilience to come from behind when needed and a memorable Centre Court debut in front of a partisan crowd at her home Grand Slam. Victory for world number 50 Pavlyuchenkova, 34, matches her 2016 run to the quarter-final at the grass-court major and she will face 30th seed Linda Noskova or 14th seed Amanda Anisimova next. In a contest reflective of the one place that separates the two in the rankings, there were six breaks of serve in a chaotic first set. Pavlyuchenkova's heavy-hitting style brought more winners but also more unforced errors as Kartal took advantage of her speed to chase the ball down, clearly unhampered despite the heavy strapping to her knee. Advertisement The Russian knew Kartal backs herself when it comes to movement but tried to wear her down. Having worked herself a break-back point at 3-2, Pavlyuchenkova pinged shots to one side of the baseline then the other, sending Kartal scurrying back and forth before cleverly deploying the drop shot - at which point Kartal stood with her hands on her hips in disbelief she hadn't won the point. That feeling of both players having to grind it out continued throughout the first set with more break points on both sides. The tension was ramped up further when on Pavlyuchenkova's game point on serve at 4-4, Kartal's backhand dropped long but the electronic line-calling system failed to call it. Advertisement Kartal then went on to break in a game that Pavlyuchenkova should have won and the Russian fumed at the change of ends but regrouped to put the controversy behind her and take the opening set after a tie-break. After a drama-filled one hour and 18 minutes, set two was a much lower-key affair. Pavlyuchenkova, perhaps fuelled by her frustration at the technology failure, turned up the pressure to break in the fifth game and that proved to be decisive as she served out victory to book her place in the last eight with a ripping forehand. For Kartal, it was an unfortunate incident that tinged her final match in a fearless run at the All England Club, which firmly cements her as a serious talent in the minds of the home crowd.
BBC News
06-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Kartal misses out on first major quarter-final
Britain's Sonay Kartal missed the chance to reach a first Grand Slam quarter-final with defeat by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in a match that saw controversy over a faulty line was a gallant effort from the 23-year-old, who ultimately succumbed 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 to the experience and know-how of former French Open finalist was halted by the umpire in the ninth game of the first set when Kartal's backhand dropped long but the electronic line-calling system failed to call it out and the point had to be 51 in the world, Kartal was already enjoying her best run at a Grand Slam having never gone beyond the third was aiming to become the first British woman to reach the quarter-finals at SW19 since Johanna Konta in time last year she was ranked outside the world's top 250 players but her efforts at the All England Club this week will see her attain a new career-high ranking after the rising star of British tennis will take comfort in her achievements - victory over a top-20 player in the first round, resilience to come from behind when needed and a memorable Centre Court debut in front of a partisan crowd at her home Grand for world number 50 Pavlyuchenkova, 34, matches her 2016 run to the quarter-final at the grass-court major and she will face 30th seed Linda Noskova or 14th seed Amanda Anisimova next. In a contest reflective of the one place that separates the two in the rankings, there were six breaks of serve in a chaotic first heavy-hitting style brought more winners but also more unforced errors as Kartal took advantage of her speed to chase the ball down, clearly unhampered despite the heavy strapping to her Russian knew Kartal backs herself when it comes to movement but tried to wear her worked herself a break-back point at 3-2, Pavlyuchenkova pinged shots to one side of the baseline then the other, sending Kartal scurrying back and forth before cleverly deploying the drop shot - at which point Kartal stood with her hands on her hips in disbelief she hadn't won the feeling of both players having to grind it out continued throughout the first set with more break points on both sides. The tension was ramped up further when on Pavlyuchenkova's game point on serve at 4-4, Kartal's backhand dropped long but the electronic line-calling system failed to call then went on to break in a game that Pavlyuchenkova should have won and the Russian fumed at the change of ends but regrouped to put the controversy behind her and take the opening set after a did, however, immediately regroup to break back, saving set points before both players held serve to force a tie-break and Pavlyuchenkova put the controversy behind her to seal the a drama-filled one hour and 18 minutes, set two was a much lower-key perhaps fuelled by her frustration at the technology failure, turned up the pressure to break in the fifth game and that proved to be decisive as she served out victory to book her place in the last eight with a ripping Kartal, it was an unfortunate incident that tinged her final match in a fearless run at the All England Club, which firmly cements her as a serious talent in the minds of the home crowd.
The Independent
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Sonay Kartal relaxed in the spotlight as she prepares for Wimbledon's last 16
Laid-back Sonay Kartal is taking the Wimbledon spotlight in her stride – even if a trip to the shops proved trickier than usual. All eyes are on Kartal as the only British woman to reach the fourth round after Emma Raducanu's brave defeat by top seed Aryna Sabalenka on Friday night. Should she beat Russian veteran Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Centre Court on Sunday, the 23-year-old will become the first British woman to reach the last eight since Johanna Konta in 2019. Kartal was back on court on Saturday, playing doubles with her close friend and fellow Briton Jodie Burrage. 'She's definitely got more cameras on her now. I have noticed that,' said Burrage. 'That's expected, you know. 'It was nice to play a doubles match with that atmosphere. It was packed on that court. Unfortunately we couldn't get them going a little bit more because we lost. 'But it was fun. She is taking it like a champion. She loves the limelight.' Kartal rolls her eyes, not for the first time, as her pal gently teases her. But the Brighton pro's run in SW19 has captured the public's imagination, as she found out on Friday evening after her third-round win over Diane Parry. 'I went to the shops and it was a bit tricky,' she said. 'That's something I will have to get used to for the next few weeks. 'Listen, people think I don't like it as my whole life I have gone under the radar a bit, but I don't have an issue with being in the spotlight or not. 'If the spotlight is on you it means you are doing good things. I am taking it as a compliment.' It is not just Kartal's tennis that is the hot topic in south-west London, but also her tattoos. She got her 14th after winning her first match at the French Open last month and is now taking suggestions for ink number 15. 'I've had a few – Jodie's idea of having Centre Court was terrible,' she laughed. 'I won't get that. Someone said I should get the vintage polo top that I've been wearing, I don't know if it is possible. Maybe a fire and ice tattoo. I like that – but it would remind me of Jodie!' Kartal found out she will be making her debut on Centre Court on Sunday just before she played her doubles match, and she has no intention of it being her last time this fortnight. 'It's a huge honour to play on that court. A court that you dream of,' she said. 'The way I am looking at it is that it's a slightly bigger Court One. Warming up on Court One a couple of days ago will help me. I will feel much better walking out on Centre. 'I know I am far from finished yet. I have done one week – got another week to go to the finish line. 'There have been some crazy results. I have been given a good spot in the draw, things have opened up. I am excited and will enjoy every second.'
