Sonay Kartal keeping an eye on old rival Emma Raducanu as Brits do battle at Wimbledon

Sonay Kartal says she'll be watching Emma Raducanu's next Wimbledon match to see whether her old rival can join her in the second week. British No. 3 Kartal stormed past Diane Parry, winning 11 of the last 13 games to seal a 6-4 6-2 victory and reach the last 16 of a Major for the first time.

Kartal grew up playing former US Open champion Raducanu in childhood tournaments across the country. And they now find themselves in a rankings battle, as the Brighton-based star can overtake her countrywoman for the first time if Raducanu loses to world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on Friday.

The current world No. 51 became the first Brit to book a spot in week two of Wimbledon, and Raducanu has a chance to join her if she can cause a huge upset against top seed Sabalenka.

While Kartal won't be hanging around the All England Club, she's keeping tabs on Raducanu's progress and will be tuning in on TV.

"I probably won't stay here. Probably try to get out of the sun. Yeah. I will be watching and supporting Emma from at home under the AC," the 23-year-old said

While Raducanu has spent years in the public eye since winning the 2021 US Open as a teenage qualifier, the spotlight is new to Kartal, but the world No. 51 isn't feeling any pressure.

She added: "Yeah, I enjoy it. I think it's an honour. Obviously you've got a lot of attention on you, it means you're doing good things.

"No, I'm pretty calm and pretty collected. I don't think it's going to affect me too much. But no, I'm just enjoying it all. I'll still pretty young. It's my first fourth round.

"Yeah, I feel like I'm going to go out on the court in the next round kind of with nothing to lose at the minute. I'm going to go swinging. I think the pressure that I'll feel is the pressure I will be putting on myself just wanting to perform as best as I can."

Kartal first made waves here 12 months ago, reaching the third round as a qualifier ranked down at No. 298 in the world. Since then, she's won her first WTA Tour title, reached the fourth round in Indian Wells, and cracked the top 50.

While Indian Wells was the moment Kartal felt like she "belonged" on the WTA Tour, her run at Wimbledon this week has also been a turning point.

"Definitely this week. But I would say maybe really Indian Wells for me. Yeah, I felt like I had good matches, had my first top-20 win there," she said.

"Yeah, it's a mix of things. I think even though I maybe haven't backed the results up as much as I would like to prior to this, on the clay as well, I felt like I'd go one or two rounds, then lose the round.

"I still felt like in the matches I won and lost, the ones I lost I felt like I was improving. I felt like the margins I lost by in each match I was making smaller. I think it is an accumulation. Definitely this week will help me massively moving forwards."

Kartal now faces former world No. 11 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova for a place in her first Grand Slam quarter-final.

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