{"id":5049,"date":"2026-01-18T10:35:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T10:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/01\/18\/turkiyes-sonmez-aids-ball-girl-enters-australian-open-second-round\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T10:35:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T10:35:26","slug":"turkiyes-sonmez-aids-ball-girl-enters-australian-open-second-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/01\/18\/turkiyes-sonmez-aids-ball-girl-enters-australian-open-second-round\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkiye\u2019s Sonmez aids ball girl, enters Australian Open second round"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Zeynep Sonmez runs and helps a fainting ball girl by guiding her to a seat during her shock win in the first round.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Zeynep Sonmez has earned a place in \u200dfans\u2019 hearts \u200das well as the second round of the Australian Open when the Turkish qualifier rushed to the aid of a \u2060ball girl who had fainted in the punishing \u200bMelbourne heat.<\/p>\n<p>The world number 112 was locked \u200din battle with 11th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova on Sunday and waiting to receive serve in the second set when the girl, \u200dwho was positioned \u2060beside the chair umpire, suddenly wobbled and fell on her back during day one of the main round.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/gallery\/2025\/12\/29\/photos-sport-in-2025-beyond-the-scoreboard\">Photos: Sporting moments of 2025 beyond the scoreboard<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/1\/9\/i-didnt-set-out-to-break-records-pakistans-first-female-mma-fighter\">\u2018I didn\u2019t set out to break records\u2019: Pakistan\u2019s first female MMA fighter<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2025\/12\/12\/afghans-olympic-hope-for-taliban-dialogue-to-spark-womens-rights-u-turn\">Ongoing Taliban-Olympic talks hope to prompt Afghan women\u2019s rights U-turn<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2025\/10\/8\/do-you-want-a-player-to-die-on-court-tennis-stars-wilt-in-china-heat\">\u2018Do you want a player to die on court?\u2019 \u2013 Tennis stars wilt in China heat<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>The girl picked herself up but stumbled again moments later, prompting 23-year-old Sonmez to stop play and run towards her.<\/p>\n<p>With the crowd applauding, Sonmez put the girl\u2019s \u200barm over her shoulder and \u200cguided her to a seat so medical staff could provide treatment.<\/p>\n<p>Sonmez went on to lose the set, but she was able \u200cto secure a 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 win and become the first woman \u200cfrom Turkiye to reach the \u2060second round of the year\u2019s first Grand Slam.<\/p>\n<p>When Russia\u2019s Alexandrova found the net to seal the match the Turkish player\u2019s way, Sonmez held her head in disbelief as she waved to her supporters in the stands.<\/p>\n<p>The crowd favourite walked off the court wrapped in the Turkish flag while more red-and-white flags of her home nation were waved by fans inside the 1573 Arena at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4248503\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4248503\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AFP__20260118__934784E__v1__MidRes__TennisAusOpen-1768726044.jpg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C514&#038;quality=80\" alt=\"Turkey\u0092s Zeynep S\u00f6nmez celebrates with teammates after defeating Russia\u0092s Ekaterina Alexandrova in their women\u0092s singles match on day one of the Australian Open in Melbourne on January 18, 2026. (Photo by DAVID GRAY \/ AFP) \/ -- IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE --\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4248503\">The crowd got behind Sonmez as she pulled off a comeback win against the 11th seed [David Gray\/AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In a 2024 interview, Sonmez said had she not been a tennis player, she would have been working towards making the world a better place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would be someone who\u2019s trying to help people \u2013 kids, women,\u201d she told Turkiye Today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn today\u2019s world, there are lots of bad things going on \u2013 wars and things like that \u2013 so I would probably be there [helping people].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sonmez\u2019s victory comes on the back of a 2025 season in which she reached \u200cthe third round at Wimbledon, marking the best Grand Slam result in the professional era for a Turkish \u200dwoman.<\/p>\n<p>She also reached the second round of the US Open in September.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4248501\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4248501\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AFP__20260118__9347848__v1__MidRes__TennisAusOpen-1768726041.jpg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C514&#038;quality=80\" alt=\"Turkey's Zeynep Sonmez celebrates winning against Russia's Ekaterina Alexandrova during their women's singles match on day one of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 18, 2026. (Photo by DAVID GRAY \/ AFP) \/ -- IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE --\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4248501\">Sonmez celebrates after winning against Alexandrova [David Gray\/AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zeynep Sonmez runs and helps a fainting ball girl by guiding her to a seat during her shock win in the first round. Zeynep Sonmez has earned a place in \u200dfans\u2019 hearts \u200das well as the second round of the Australian Open when the Turkish qualifier rushed to the aid of a \u2060ball girl who &#8230; <a title=\"Turkiye\u2019s Sonmez aids ball girl, enters Australian Open second round\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/01\/18\/turkiyes-sonmez-aids-ball-girl-enters-australian-open-second-round\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Turkiye\u2019s Sonmez aids ball girl, enters Australian Open second round\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}