Turkiye’s Sonmez aids ball girl, enters Australian Open second round

Zeynep Sonmez’s heroics in the second round of the Australian Open earned him a place in the hearts of both the Turkish qualifier and the Melbourne champion.

When the girl, who was positioned atop the chair umpire, suddenly wobbled and fell on her back during day one of the main round, the world number 112 and Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 11th-seeded player, were fighting on Sunday and waiting to receive serve in the second set.

The girl picked herself up, but she stumbled once more, causing Sonmez, 23, to halt the game and run toward her.

Sonmez directed the girl to a seat so that medical staff could take her to a spot while the crowd cheered.

Sonmez lost the next set, but she was able to win 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, making her debut as Turkiye’s first woman to advance to the second round of the competition’s first Grand Slam.

Sonmez waved to her supporters in disbelief as Russia’s Alexandrova found the net to seal the match for the Turkish player.

Fans in the 1573 Arena at Melbourne Park waved the crowd favorite’s red-and-white flags of her home country as she left the court, wrapping herself in the Turkish flag, and continued on the court.

Sonmez claimed in an interview from 2024 that she would have been working to improve the world if she hadn’t played tennis.

She told Turkiye Today, “I would be someone who is trying to help people, both children and women.”

“I would probably be there [helping people] because there are many bad things going on in today’s world, including wars and other things like that.”

Sonmez’s victory is the best Grand Slam victory for a Turkish woman in the history of tennis, coming off of a 2025 season in which she advanced to the third round at Wimbledon.

In September, she also advanced to the US Open’s second round.