Sonay Kartal goes into Eastbourne with top 30 goal

Sonay Kartal is making her Eastbourne debut in 2025

Tennis player Sonay Kartal says she has set herself a target of breaking into the world's top 30 by the end of the year.

Kartal, from Hove, East Sussex, makes her Eastbourne singles debut on Tuesday, against third seed Elena Ostapenko.

She kicked off her campaign in the doubles alongside fellow Brit Jodie Burrage with a victory on Monday over Americans Hailey Baptiste and Peyton Stearns.

She also said she was looking forward to the prospect of playing British number one and former US Open champion Emma Raducanu.

Sonay Kartal and Jodie Burrage made a winning start to their Eastbourne doubles campaign

"Since last year, I've made a lot of strides in my game," Kartal told BBC South East, "I've played a lot of bigger events, it's become normal.

"Leading into the grass, top 50 was an end of year goal, the new goal for me is now top 30.

"I feel better now in general on the court and off the court."

Emma Raducanu played alongside Sonay Kartal as juniors

She and Raducanu played alongside each other as under-nines in Lawn Tennis Association competitions.

"We'd always play each other in the final," Kartal said. "We played those and went our separate ways in teenage years and it's nice to reconnect now we're older.

"We'd love to recreate the videos and matches online of us playing as kids, it's nice to be back at the same event again."

Raducanu also begins her Eastbourne campaign on Tuesday against Anne Li of the United States.

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