Zeynep Sönmez (born 30 April 2002) is a Turkish professional tennis player.
She has career-high rankings in singles of world No. 91 by the WTA, and in doubles of No. 584, achieved in October 2024. Sönmez has won four singles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. She is the current No. 1 Turkish player.
Sönmez competes for Turkey in the Billie Jean King Cup, where she has a win/loss record of 5–3 as of September 2024.[1]
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 Dayana Yastremska, her first top 30 win, and ninth seed Emina Bektas. She then defeated lucky loser Arantxa Rus in the first round, recording her first WTA main-draw win.[8] She lost to Victoria Azarenka in the round of 16.[9] As a result she reached a new career-high singles ranking of No. 136 on 24 June 2024 before the Wimbledon Championships, where she reached the third round of qualifying.[10]
In September, Sönmez reached her first WTA Tour quarterfinal at the Jasmin Open, going through qualifying, and defeated Rebeka Masarova[11] and sixth seed Greet Minnen.[12] She was the first Turkish player to reach a quarterfinal on the tour since 2017, after both Çağla Büyükakçay and Başak Eraydın made quarterfinals in Istanbul.[13] She lost in the last eight to Eva Lys.[14] Ranked No. 148, at the WTA 500 Pan Pacific Open, she qualified for the main draw and upset seventh seed Magdalena Fręch for her second top 30 win.[15]
In November, at the Mérida Open Sönmez defeated sixth seed María Lourdes Carlé,[16][17]Elsa Jacquemot, [18] top seed Renata Zarazúa, reaching her first WTA semifinal,[19] and finally Alina Korneeva, making her first final.[20][21] 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 Çağla Büyükakçay in Istanbul in 2016 and only the second overall.[22] As a result she reached the top 100 for the first time in her career at world No. 91 on 4 November 2024.[23][24]
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Billie Jean King Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.[25]
^ abThe first Premier 5 event of the year has switched back and forth between the Dubai Tennis Championships and the Qatar Ladies Open since 2009 until 2024. Dubai was classified as a Premier 5 event from 2009 to 2011 before being succeeded by Doha for the 2012–2014 period. In 2015, Dubai regained its Premier 5 status while Doha was demoted to Premier status. The Premier 5 tournaments were reclassified as WTA 1000 tournaments in 2021.
^During the season, she did not play in the main draw of any WTA Tour-level tournaments. However, she played in the Billie Jean King Cup, which is not counted as a played tournament but matches count.