Between the topics of Dolly Parton and her dog, one of the few British survivors at these championships was asked about one of the many tattoos on her skin on Friday afternoon.
There are 14 of them dotted around the 5ft 3in frame of Sonay Kartal, ranging from a snake to an eagle to a golden retriever, but the one in question was a phrase: ‘The show must go on.’
As it transpired, that was just about her only inscription without a deeper meaning, and yet it has proven quite prophetic. Her show just keeps on going, and what a delight that has been.
In its latest instalment, here on Court No 1, there was a two-set demolition of France’s Diane Perry and next is a winnable fourth-round appointment with the world No 50 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova this weekend.
As such, a glorious giddiness is rising in tandem with a run that has carried Kartal’s unconventional story and unguarded personality towards the deep end of the tournament.
The 23-year-old daughter of a Turkish kebab shop owner in Brighton, Kartal was not supported by LTA funding until she was 19, still lives at home, and works with the same coach she had at the age of six. That she also has a vicious forehand has helped in achieving her best charge at a Slam.
Sonay Kartal stormed past Diane Perry on Friday to book her spot in Wimbledon’s fourth round
Kartal will face world No 50 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova – who beat Naomi Osaka in the third round – this weekend
Before last year’s Wimbledon tournament, Kartal was ranked 298th in the world but is now 51st
Certainly, the latter came to the rescue in a third-round encounter that had initially set off on an ominous course. Broken in her first service game, the world No 51 was 4-1 down before the switch flipped and Kartel blitzed the next nine. By the time Parry stirred, she was two breaks down in the second set.
As a display of composure in a tricky spot, the first-set resurrection was impressive, and more so for the sudden dwindling of fellow Brits across the men’s and women’s draws. That funnelling of pressure can bring dramatic effects, but Kartal seems to be heading the other way. The more it grows, the more comfortable she has appeared.
‘I enjoy it,’ she said. ‘I think it’s an honour. Obviously you’ve got a lot of attention on you, it means you’re doing good things, so I’m pretty calm and pretty collected. I don’t think it’s going to affect me too much.
‘I’m just enjoying it all. I’ll still pretty young and 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.’
That will be necessary against Pavlyuchenkova, who at 34 has faded from the force that once stood at 11th in the world, but is still sufficiently equipped, as shown by her win against Naomi Osaka on Friday.
It will be tough for Kartal, but such are the quirks of Wimbledon, a home hope with a fun personality can trigger the kind of support that swings matches.
Kartal’s tale has already garnered attention, largely for the tattoos, but also her willingness to explore any tangent. On Wednesday, that extended to a discussion about ‘going on adventures with my dog’, and then a wish that she had been born a decade earlier because of musical trends.
As she put it: ‘I like a lot of nineties music, old school, 2000s. I’m pretty versatile, to be honest with you. I have a bad habit of playing one song, like, 50 times and then absolutely hating it for the rest of the year.’
Kartal has 14 tattoos on her body, one of them reading: ‘Time is everything we have and don’t’
The 23-year-old was not supported by LTA funding until she was 19, still lives at home, and works with the same coach she had at the age of six
That fed into Dolly Parton, somehow, and a disclosure that Islands In The Stream is her favoured karaoke act, before a resumption of the tattoo theme, which kick-started earlier in the week when Kartal asked journalists to provide options for her 15th item of body art.
‘My tattoos all started with meaning,’ she said. ‘Then I guess the more I got, the kind of more spontaneous and braver I got. In the early days, I would have to like it for a good few months before getting one. Now I like it for two days and I’ll get something.’
Like the show, the ink just goes on. It’s not Wimbledon as we often know it, but that might just be a good thing.
