Jul 10, 2024; London, United Kingdom; Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) reacts after missing a shot against Barbora Krejcikova (CZE)(not pictured) in a ladies' singles quarter final match of The Championships Wimbledon 2024 at The All England Lawn Tennis Club.

tennis

No. 20 Seed Jelena Ostapenko Crashes Out as Britain’s Sonay Kartal Gets Sweet Revenge at Wimbledon 2025

World No. 51 needed just under 2 hours to seal the win.

20th seed and former Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko was sent packing in Round-1 of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships, as Sonay Kartal of Great Britain delivered a sensational three set win. It was an error-prone outing for the Latvian, who succumbed to her third opening round exit from her last four majors. Meanwhile, Kartal’s 7-5 2-6 6-2 win enabled her to progress and face Viktoriya Tomova in Round-2.

Ostapenko was a quarterfinalist at Wimbledon from 2024. As a result, she will drop massive ranking points in her quest for Top-20. Kartal, who was beaten by her higher ranked opponent at Eastbourne last week, turned the tables to cause Court-3 mayhem on opening day at the Championships. The 23-year-old fended off the power-packed wrath of Ostapenko to get the British charge off to a perfect start at SW19.

BIG DUB on home soil! 🇬🇧😮‍💨

Sonay Kartal digs deep to defeat Ostapenko in a three set thriller. #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/kLBehZDUyP
— wta (@WTA) June 30, 2025

Sonay Kartal Finds Answers in Seesaw Battle vs Jelena Ostapenko

The players walked onto the court under the sweltering 30 degree London heat on Monday. As the World No. 21 raced to a 5-2 lead in the opening set, Kartal would have had flashbacks of her straight sets thrashing at the hands of Ostapenko just a week prior to All England. Fighting these demons with vigorous strength, the Briton fought back to grab the opener 7-5. It was a brilliant counter-attack to the brute force of the Latvian.

Ostapenko, who was penalised by Wimbledon’s new electronic line calling system for a foot fault in the very first point, fought back in Set-2. She brushed aside the pain of giving away three set points in the first set to adopt her classic tactic of going for more on groundstrokes. She targeted the Kartal second serve to send the match into a decider.

After going through an emotional rollercoaster for a set and a half, the 28-year-old Grand Slam champion seemed to have settled into the clash. However, her 15 winners and 4 unforced error count in the second set led to mild fatigue in the final set. Botched overheads, unforced errors and double faults meant that Kartal was up by a triple break within no time. Despite gifting one of these breaks back, the British young gun held serve in Game-8 to emerge victorious.

Kartal Breaks Records and Win Hearts En Route to Win

1 – Sonay Kartal is the first British player in the Open Era to defeat a former Grand Slam Champion in Wimbledon's Women's Singles First Round. Accomplishment.#Wimbledon #Wimbledon2025 | @Wimbledon @the_LTA @WTA pic.twitter.com/GBWGi56lAO
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) June 30, 2025

By virtue of her opening round success, Sonay Kartal earned Great Britain its first success at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships. The Court-3 crowd was left stunned, and broke into cheers of joy that could be heard around All England Club after match point. She also got sweet redemption and equalled her head-to-head against Ostapenko to 1-1 in the process.

Earlier this month, Kartal entered the WTA Top-50 for the first time in her career. She shattered more records on Monday – becoming the first British player in the Open Era to defeat a former Grand Slam champion in the Wimbledon women’s singles first round. The British No. 3 will encounter a relatively easier draw after overcoming the 20th seed in the competition.

(Image Credits: Imagn Images)

Jelena Ostapenko

Ons Jabeur

Sonay Kartal

Tennis

Viktoriya Tomova

Wimbledon

Wimbledon 2025

WTA

Sankalp Harikrishnan

A passionate sports fan through and through, I am currently pursuing my MA in Global Sports Journalism. I specialise in tennis and football writing at The Playoffs News, and I have prior experience working at EssentiallySports and Sportskeeda. Born and raised in Bengaluru, India, sport was my safe space right from my childhood. After trying my hand at multiple sports and representing my educational institutions in cricket, badminton and table tennis, I found sports media to be my calling.