MATCH REPORT | 2024 Jasmin Open Monastir Final: Sonay Kartal achieves qualifying to maiden WTA title dream

Sunday, 15 September 2024 at 19:10

In what was a first WTA title no matter what at the Jasmin Open Monastir, it was Sonay Kartal who took the glory with the Brit seeing off Rebecca Sramkova in the final 6-3, 7-5 in Tunisia.

Kartal reached the third round of Wimbledon earlier this year and is now into the top 115 in the world and at the age of 22 will hope to now kick on. She had to come through qualifying to even play this week despite the field being fairly poor for a WTA 250.

She saw off Jaqueline Cristian early on in the tournament in her big scalp. Whilst Eva Lys who perhaps was the favourite to lift the title out of the semi-final line-up had to retire after being ill all week. Kartal went through in a walkover as a result and faced another unseeded player in Sramkova who was also into her first final.

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Having grown up playing alongside Emma Raducanu, a lot of the interviews and chat surrounding Kartal has been about her compatriot but she will now aim to make it about herself.

It was a pretty superb start from Sonay with the Brit going into a 3-1 lead with a break early on. She lost it straight away but came back to seal a break at the opportune moment as she took the game to her fellow unheralded opponent. She broke to make it 5-3 and bookended the set 5-3. But the wheels came off slightly.

She surged into a 4-1 lead and the title seemed to be beckoning very quickly. But finishing line fever seemed to be a thing as she found herself broken at 4-2 and then had break points to make it 5-2 before losing the game. She had to serve to go one away or Sramkova would suddenly put it back on serve.

She did just that and suddenly Srmakova was in the ascendancy. Kartal continued to spurn winning positions and her opponent turned it around from 4-1 up to 5-5. But Kartal didn't want another set and broke to make it 6-5 before finally falling over the line at 7-5.

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You always remember your first ✨🏆✨ Qualifier Sonay Kartal captures her maiden WTA Tour title in Monastir after defeating Sramkova 6-3, 7-5! #JasminOpenByLilas

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5:10 PM · Sep 15, 2024

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