Turkish tennis player Zeynep Sönmez has pushed her career to a new peak, climbing to No. 65 in the latest WTA rankings released May 4, a rise fueled by a composed and competitive run at the Madrid Open.
The 24-year-old from Istanbul carried momentum onto the clay in Spain, reaching the third round of the WTA 1000 event with two measured wins.
She opened by dispatching Spanish wild card Carlota Martinez Cirez in straight sets, then showed resilience to outlast 27th seed Cristina Bucsa in a three-set battle that underlined her growing confidence at elite level.
Her run ended against Argentina’s Solana Sierra, but the damage had already been done in the rankings.
Those results added crucial points to a season that continues to trend upward.
Sönmez had already been flirting with a personal best earlier this spring, and Madrid provided the final push.
Her 2026 campaign now stands at 15 wins against 10 losses, with earnings nearing half a million dollars for the year and more than $1.7 million across her career.
Sönmez’s rise has been steady rather than sudden.
Since turning professional in her mid-teens, she has built her game through the ITF circuit before translating that consistency onto the WTA Tour.
The breakthrough came in 2024 with her maiden WTA title in Merida, followed by a landmark run to the third round of the 2026 Australian Open as a qualifier.
Earlier this year, she also secured the first Top 10 victory of her career, another signal of her upward trajectory.
Her latest ranking places her within striking distance of Turkish history.
Çağla Büyükakçay remains the benchmark with a career-high of No. 60, set in 2016, a mark that once defined the ceiling for Turkish women’s tennis.
Now, Sönmez is closing in, carrying the weight of expectation while expanding the horizon.
More importantly, she has emerged as the country’s leading active player, combining baseline consistency with improved shot selection on both hard and clay courts.
That versatility was evident in Melbourne and Madrid, and it gives her a platform to sustain progress through the rest of the season.
