Zeynep Sönmez (born 30 April 2002) is a Turkish professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player. She has career-high rankings of No. 76 in singles and No. 584 in doubles by the WTA, achieved in 2025. Sönmez has won one singles title on the

WTA Tour The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...

and four singles titles on the

ITF Women's Circuit The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, previously known as the ITF Women's Circuit, is a series of professional tennis tournaments run by the International Tennis Federation for female professional tennis players. History It serves as a developmenta ...

. She is the current No. 1 Turkish player. Sönmez competes for

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

in the

Billie Jean King Cup The Billie Jean King Cup (or the BJK Cup) is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The name was chan ...

, where she has a win/loss record of 5–3 as of February 2025.

Career

2023: WTA Tour debut, Turkish No. 1

In June 2023, Sönmez made her

debut at the Rosmalen Open in the Netherlands as a qualifier. She reached her first WTA 125 final at the Zavarovalnica Sava Ljubljana, but lost to Marina Bassols Ribera in straight sets.

2024: First WTA Tour title, major & top 100 debuts

Sönmez made her WTA 1000 debut as a wildcard into the Qatar Ladies Open but lost to

Lesia Tsurenko Lesia Viktorivna Tsurenko (; born 30 May 1989) is a Ukrainian inactive professional tennis player. Tsurenko has won four singles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as ten singles and eight doubles tournaments on the ITF Women's Circuit. On 18 Febr ...

. Ranked No. 157, she qualified for her first major main draw at the

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

by defeating

Dejana Radanović Dejana Radanović ( sr-cyr, Дејана Радановић; born 14 May 1996) is a Serbian tennis player. Radanović has won 12 singles titles and three doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. On 2 July 2018, she reached her best WTA singl ...

Aliaksandra Sasnovich Aliaksandra Aliaksandraŭna Sasnovich (born 22 March 1994) is a Belarusian professional tennis player. She achieved her best singles ranking of world No. 29 on 19 September 2022, and peaked at No. 39 in the WTA doubles rankings on 23 August 2021 ...

, and

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in qualifying. She was the first Turkish woman to play in the main draw of the French Open since

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and

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in 2017. In the beginning of the grass-court season, she qualified for the main draw at the Berlin Ladies Open with upset wins over two qualifying seeds, top seed

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, her first top 30 win, and ninth seed

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. She then defeated lucky loser

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in the first round, recording her first WTA main-draw win. She lost to

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in the round of 16. As a result, she reached a new career-high singles ranking of No. 136 on 24 June 2024 before the

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly called Wimbledon, is a tennis tournament organised by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in collaboration with the Lawn Tennis Association annually in Wimbledon, London. It is chronologically the ...

, where she reached the third round of qualifying. In September, Sönmez reached her first WTA Tour quarterfinal at the Jasmin Open, going through qualifying, and defeated

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and sixth seed

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. She was the first Turkish player to reach a quarterfinal on the tour since 2017, after both Çağla Büyükakçay and

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made quarterfinals in Istanbul. She lost in the last eight to

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. Ranked No. 148, at the WTA 500

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, she qualified for the main draw and upset seventh seed

Magdalena Fręch Magdalena Fręch (; born 15 December 1997) is a Polish professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 22, achieved on 28 October 2024. On 8 August 2022, she peaked at No. 174 in the doubles WTA rankings, rankings. ...

for her second top 30 win. In November, at the Mérida Open, Sönmez defeated sixth seed

María Lourdes Carlé María Lourdes Carlé (; born 10 February 2000) is an Argentine professional tennis player. She has a career-high WTA singles ranking of No. 71, achieved on 6 May 2024, and a doubles ranking of world No. 124, achieved on 11 November 2024. She h ...

, Elsa Jacquemot, top seed

Renata Zarazúa Renata Zarazúa Ruckstuhl (born 30 September 1997), known as Renata Zarazúa (), is a Mexican professional tennis player. She reached a best singles ranking of world No. 51 on 25 November 2024, and peaked at No. 88 in the doubles rankings on 27 ...

, reaching her first WTA semifinal, and finally Alina Korneeva, making her first final. She defeated Ann Li in straight sets to win her first tour-level singles title and became the first player from Turkey to win a WTA singles title since

in Istanbul in 2016 and only the second overall. As a result, she reached the top 100 for the first time in her career, at world No. 91 on 4 November 2024.

Performance timeline

''Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Billie Jean King Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.''

Singles

WTA Tour finals

Singles: 1 (title)

WTA Challenger finals

Singles: 1 (runner-up)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 8 (4 titles, 4 runner-ups)

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sonmez, Zeynep 2002 births Living people Sportspeople from Istanbul Turkish female tennis players 21st-century Turkish sportswomen Place of birth missing (living people)