British qualifier Kartal charges to first WTA singles title in Monastir

British qualifier Sonay Kartal completed a breakthrough week on the Hologic WTA Tour by winning her first WTA singles title at the Jasmin Open on Sunday.

Monastir: Scores | Order of Play | Draws

In a clash between first-time WTA singles finalists, Kartal defeated Slovakia's Rebecca Sramkova 6-3, 7-5 to capture the WTA 250 title in Monastir, Tunisia. World No.151 Kartal needed just under two hours to prevail, holding off a late second-set charge by Sramkova.

"It's unbelievable," Kartal said, after her victory. "I've had such a good week this week, played some of my best tennis this week, had some of my best wins. I feel like each match I've kind of grown and got better."

Fast facts: The 22-year-old from Brighton became the first qualifier to win a WTA singles title this season (Olivia Gadecki nearly matched that feat later on Sunday at the Guadalajara Open AKRON, but she finished as runner-up to Magdalena Frech).

Kartal is also the second player from Great Britain to win a title in 2024. Her fellow Brit Katie Boulter took home the singles trophies at both San Diego and Nottingham this year.

From July: Get to know Sonay Kartal

Kartal had never made a tour-level quarterfinal before this week, but she methodically moved through the draw in Monastir. The qualifier lost her first set of the main draw to No.5 seed Jaqueline Cristian, but after that, she did not drop another set all week.

As recently as May, Kartal was ranked outside the Top 300 after health issues set her back. Bolstered by a third-round run at her home Grand Slam of Wimbledon, and now her first WTA title, a projected Top 100 debut appears imminent.

"I started the year with the goal of being Top 150, so now I think I've past that," Kartal said. "I think I'm just trying to end the year in the Top 100. ... It's to put myself in the best position for Australia at the start of the year."

Key moments: Kartal stormed to a 6-3, 4-1 lead in Sunday's final. At the tail end of that run, she won 20 of the last 22 points. However, World No.136 Sramkova made a comeback, leveling affairs at 4-4 on her fourth break point of a titanic game.

Another lengthy game followed, with Kartal using her backhand to break for 5-4 and serve for the match. Sramkova, though, was not done yet, firing a forehand winner to get on par again at 5-5.

In the end, Kartal reclaimed her lead with another break for 6-5, and she successfully served out the match on her second attempt, using consecutive powerful forehands to wrap up the win.

"I tried so hard to put the occasion and the score behind me, tried to treat it like any other match, as much as I could," Kartal said.

Kartal had three fewer winners than Sramkova in the final, but the Brit played a cleaner match, with 18 unforced errors to Sramkova's 39. Both players had a 50 percent success rate on break points, but for Kartal, that was 7-for-14, while Sramkova converted five of 10.

Blinkova, Sherif claim doubles title: Anna Blinkova and Mayar Sherif won Saturday's doubles final in Monastir, squeaking past Alina Korneeva and Anastasia Zakharova 2-6, 6-1, [10-8] in 1 hour and 16 minutes.

Egypt's Sherif collected her first career WTA doubles title with the victory, in her third career doubles final on tour. This is Blinkova's second WTA doubles title, and her first since 2018 Rabat.