Zeynep Sönmez

Zeynep Sönmez (born 30 April 2002) is a Turkish professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 48, achieved on 13 July 2026, making her the highest-ranked Turkish player in WTA history. She is the second Turkish player to reach the top 100 in WTA rankings, after Çağla Büyükakçay.

Sönmez has won one singles title on the WTA Tour. She also has a best ranking of No. 187 in doubles, achieved in June 2026. Sönmez competes for Turkey in the Billie Jean King Cup, where she has a win/loss record of 10–4 as of August 2026.

Career

2023: WTA Tour debut, Turkish No. 1 In June 2023, Sönmez made her WTA Tour debut at the Rosmalen Open in the Netherlands as a qualifier. She reached her first WTA 125 final at the Ljubljana Open, 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. Ranked No. 157, she qualified for her first major main draw at the French Open by defeating Dejana Radanović, Aliaksandra Sasnovich, and Jana Fett in qualifying. She was the first Turkish woman to play in the main draw of the French Open since Çağla Büyükakçay and İpek Soylu 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 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 Tour main-draw win. She lost to Victoria Azarenka in the round of 16. As a result, she reached a new career-high of No. 136 on 24 June 2024, before the Wimbledon Championships, where she reached the third round of qualifying.

In September, Sönmez reached her first WTA Tour quarterfinal at the Jasmin Open, after advancing through qualifying, and defeated Rebeka Masarova and sixth seed Greet Minnen. 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. She lost in the last eight to Eva Lys. 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.

In November, at the Mérida Open, Sönmez defeated sixth seed María Lourdes Carlé, Elsa Jacquemot, top seed Renata Zarazúa, 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 Tour singles title since Çağla Büyükakçay 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.

2025: Wimbledon third round Making her debut at the Australian Open, Sönmez lost in the first round to wildcard entrant Talia Gibson in three sets.

Defending her title at the Mérida Open, which had been upgraded to a WTA 500 event and switched from October to February, she recorded wins over eighth seed Maria Sakkari and Magda Linette to make it through to the quarterfinals, where she lost to top seed and eventual champion, Emma Navarro.

In May at the Rabat Grand Prix, Sönmez overcame third seed Lucia Bronzetti, before losing to wildcard entrant Anastasija Sevastova in the second round. The following week at the French Open, she lost in the first round to 13th seed Elina Svitolina, in straight sets.

At Wimbledon, Sönmez defeated Jaqueline Cristian and Wang Xinyu to become the first player from Turkey to reach the third round of a Grand Slam tournament in the Open Era. Her run was then ended by 18th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.

In August, Sönmez made her main-draw debut at the US Open and overcame qualifier Katie Volynets, before losing to 27th seed Marta Kostyuk in the second round.

2026: Australian Open and top 10 wins In November 2025 former Tunisian tennis pro Ons Jabeur and her longtime coach Issam Jellali joined Sönmez's team as a mentor and her head coach, respectively. At the 2026 Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the season, Sönmez entered the competition through the qualifying rounds. She won three consecutive matches to secure a place in the main draw. Sönmez defeated world No. 11, Ekaterina Alexandrova, in three sets and advanced to the second round, the first Turkish woman to record a match win at the Australian Open in the Open Era. She reached the third round by defeating Anna Bondár, becoming the first Turkish player in the Open Era to reach the third round of the Australian Open. In the first round of Stuttgart Open, she upset fifth seed Jasmine Paolini, then-world No. 8, in two sets for her first career top-10 win. That was the second singles top-10 victory of any Turkish player, following Çağla Büyükakçay's Fed Cup victory against Jeļena Ostapenko in 2018, and the first-ever in WTA Tour history.

At the Wimbledon 2026, she reached the second round by defeating Ann Li. In the second round, she was eliminated losing to Claire Liu in straight sets. In doubles, she was eliminated in the first round alongside her Spanish partner, Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.

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 Current through the 2026 Cincinnati Open.

WTA Tour finals

Singles: 1 (title) LegendWTA 250 (1–0)Finals by surfaceHard (1–0)Finals by settingOutdoor (1–0)

WTA 125 finals

Singles: 1 (runner-up)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 8 (4 titles, 4 runner-ups) LegendW40 tournaments (1–0)W25 tournaments (1–1)W15 tournaments (2–3)Finals by surfaceHard (3–1)Clay (1–3)

Best Grand Slam results details

Singles

Wins over top-10 players Sönmez's match record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.

Season 2026 TotalWins11

Personal life Her family is from the Arhavi district of Artvin.