Oh boy, where do I even start with this one? So, I wandered into this match — Sonay Kartal, bless her, against Caroline Garcia at the Cincinnati Open. And yeah, things didn’t exactly go sunny-side-up for Kartal. She’s 23, just getting into her groove, but Garcia — the one who snagged the 2022 title, mind you — took her down 7-5, 4-6, 3-6. Kind of a rollercoaster set, if you ask me.
Garcia’s no rookie, being a former world number four — which, I gotta say, sounds impressive. She’s moving on to tackle Karolina Muchova next. Oh, and here’s a spicy bit — Muchova, 31, hasn’t bagged a victory since March 19th and announced she’d hang up her racket later this year. Not sure why this tidbit stuck with me, but it just did. The drama!
Poor Kartal is joining the unfortunate gang of first-round dropouts, along with fellow Brits, Katie Boulter and Jacob Fearnley. It’s like a London bus — you wait ages for a Brit to lose, and then three come along at once. Not that I was anticipating losses or anything.
Boulter, by the way, 29 — suffice it to say, her match was a bit of a mixed bag. She got swept 6-0 in the first set by Serbia’s Olga Danilovic. Brutal, right? And then just to twist the knife, Danilovic is set to go up against Emma Raducanu next — who, just for a dash of trivia, recently overtook Boulter as the UK’s top dog in women’s tennis.
Anyway, I guess that’s all the mental tennis jumble bouncing around in my head for now. Such is life in the tennis lane, I suppose.
