Touch Sony Kartal's name on YouTube and see what the most visual video is. It is not the highlight of its advances in the progress in Indian Wells this fortnight or its WTA title in Tunisia last year. It is a clip entitled: 'Young Emma Raducanu Epic Rally' and shows two nine -year -old girls for 19 shots on a medium -sized tennis court.
Kartal won that point, hitting a right on the line, but Raducanu was the prodigy and, after the Open of US 2021, the Global Mega-Strella. Kartal stayed not only in the shadow but also in the black darkness.
What has happened with these two women since then suggests that, when it comes to gathering the foundations of a tennis career, darkness can be preferable to a center of attention.
With his career until the last 16 in Indian Wells, Kartal is up to 63 in the world, only three places and 15 classification points behind Raducanu. If Brighton's 23 -year -old can overcome Aryna Sabalenka on Wednesday, she is the new British No 2.
The two old combat companions are almost neck and neck, but their paths at this stage could not have been more contrasting.
Kartal put the construction blocks in place and this fortnight began to add some architectural flourishing. Raducanu began erecting the peak of a magnificent skyscraper and has been trying to fill the base stones since then.
Sonay Kartal has impressed lately, reaching the last 16 in Indian wells and up to 63 in the world
He has only three places and 15 classification points behind Emma Raducanu, whom he has met for a long time.
If Brighton's 23 -year -old can somehow overcome Aryna Sabalenka on Wednesday, she is the new British No 2
After his Grand Slam title, Raducanu was thrown directly into the WTA tour, as Alice falling through the rabbit burrow and the Wonderland. Her first event since New York was in Indian Wells and experts remembered her sometimes looking lost, literally, while sailing through the big site.
A few months after completing her levels A, she was fighting with the best physical players in the world and it is not surprising that her body has begun to break. Each defeat, training and injury appointment was widely litigated in the Public Opinion Court.
Meanwhile, Kartal rose his Subcito through the darkest scopes of the women's tour. His career has been far from being a soft path, he lost more than a year with wrist problems and at the beginning of 2024 he was inside and outside the hospital, but he has been let him step on him alone. For example, Kartal has not revealed those medical problems that affected her last year, that is her right, but she would not have been given to Raducanu.
Kartal built his classification from 900 to 200 and was then planned before a rapid increase that began in Wimbledon last year. She has played lower level events or entered the qualification for the largest. There is pressure in that life. The pressure to obtain enough money reward to pay for training and travel invoices, the pressure to demonstrate what is needed.
But it is the type of pressure that feeds character and resilience. The pressure that Raducanu has faced, to meet the unrealistic expectations, is the guy who can paralyze a young athlete.
Seeing these two women compete in Indian Wells also made me think of luck; The role he plays in sport and our perceptions of athletes. Kartal lost in the final qualification round, but was transferred to the main draw after Sloane Stephens retired. He faced the world NO124 Varvara Lepchenko, whose last victory at the tour level arrived in October, and then Beatriz Haddad-Maia, with a four-game losing run, to make the third round. Then he had a good victory against Veronika Kudermetova.
It has been a dream raffle, the blow of the good fortune that Kartal has been waiting. He took advantage and if he can support it in the coming months, his career is thrown.
Kartal has not revealed those medical problems that affected it last year; They would not have allowed Raducanu to a correct imagination.
She has faced pressure to play lower level events, but her trip has been different from her countrywoman
Meanwhile, for Raducanu, it is almost as if he had used his fool of luck in three weeks in New York and has been paying a debt with destiny since then.
I will go to my grave defending the old adage that one cannot sink a Grand Slam, certainly not even won through the rating without dropping a set, but you cannot deny the things that broke the path of Raducanu several times on the road to its open title in the United States.
However, if there was an element of the stars that were aligned, then the skies have fractured since then. The ankle and wrist injuries that required surgery were the most serious problems, but in recent months there has been a strange rear spasm, the rebirth of his trusted coach Nick Cavaday and a terrible experience with a stalker.
It shows Raducanu's resistance capacity that she has arrived through so much fortune and is still here, still plugging and, usually, still smiling.
So where will the two talented tykes who will play that epic rally go from here? Kartal must show that he can hack him against the best players and may be dealing with a little more external pressure. As for Raducanu, with the new coach Vladimir Platenik instead, he will pray for a few months without injuries and without incident. A normality fall, a pinch of anonymity, a portion of luck.
Champion Lunch
The Golf Masters Champions dinner is one of the great initiatives in sport, so it was exciting to hear that Indian Wells would organize its first Champions Lunch this year.
It was a quite peculiar occasion. Along with a few dozen media members, last year's winners IgA Swiatk and Carlos Alcaraz sat in high stools when their choice of national dishes served. From Poland there were some pierogies (soft and comforting cheese meatballs), which Swiatek said his grandfather used to do. So far, so good.
Then came Alcaraz and Manchego snack with peppers and things began to get out of the rails. The Spanish said for the first time that Paella would have preferred and then revealed that she did not like peppers. The offensive sandwich was carried out and replaced by an Desapp with. So Alcaraz chose his dish or not?
I am sure that things will be a bit more skilled next year, when I hope to see what delights of the British cooking champions Jack Draper and Sonay Kartal serve …
Indian Wells organized his first Champions Lunch this year: Carlos Alcaraz had Jamon and Manchego Bocadillo with peppers
From Poland there were some pierogías, that Iga Swiatek said his grandfather used to do
WTA Maternity Fund
When Indian Wells began, the launch of a new maternity package of the WTA came, co -colored by the Private Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. Players will have 12 months of paid maternity leave and other benefits, including FIV financing.
The first thing I should say is that this is a fantastic, although late. For smaller rank players, who could not have had the Western Prizomoney Prize to afford a year or more out of the tour to start a family, it will be transformative. But we cannot ignore the irony of the scheme has been financed by a country that occupies the 126th of 146 by gender equality.
There is a feeling that Saudi Arabia is interested in supporting the rights of all women, except those living within their borders.
Kartal is one to see: it will be fascinating to see how it is when the tour moves to Clay
One to look
Sonay Kartal
As mentioned earlier, Kartal had a lucky loser dreamer drawing this fortnight, but he still played some excellent things and it will be fascinating to see how he goes once the tour moves the clay next month. His aggressive upper turn on both sides disagrees with the general tendency to hit more banks on the women's tour and should be ideal for the red earth.
Brighton's 23 -year -old told me this week: 'Clay looks great. I like to make a battle on the court, I like to make long and physical manifestations.
Could Kartal be so strange to indigenous British species: the specialist in the clay court?