Zeynep Sönmez reached the second round of the Australian Open, the first grand slam tennis tournament of the season, by beating Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova 2-1.
Zeynep, who is at the 112th place in the women’s world rankings, faced the number 11 seed Alexandrova in the women’s singles first round match of the tournament held in Melbourne.
The 23-year-old national tennis player won the first set 7-5 after being 5-2 down and converting two set points against Alexandrova, whom she lost in the 3rd round of Wimbledon last year.
Zeynep took a 3-1 lead in the second set, which she started by breaking serve, but Alexandrova won the set with a score of 6-4 with consecutive games.
Falling 3-0 behind in the final set, Zeynep equalized the situation after the 6th game, which lasted approximately 15 minutes. Zeynep, who went ahead 5-4 after mutually broken serves, won the set 6-4 on the 4th match point and 2-1 in the match that lasted 2 hours and 37 minutes.
Zeynep, who is the first Turkish female tennis player to win a singles match on the Australian Open main table, will face the winner of the Anna Bondar (Hungary)-Elizabeth Mandlik (USA) match in the 2nd round.
Sensational Sonmez 🇹🇷@wwos • @espn • @tntsports • @wowowtennis • #AO26 pic.twitter.com/ptkJbTDnlk
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 18, 2026
🇹🇷 Zeynep Sönmez’s match score and the enthusiasm of the star-crescent fans in the stands! pic.twitter.com/CWsLRDAfTS
— AA SPORTS (@aa_spor) January 18, 2026
