Brighton and Hove tennis star Sonay Kartal is preparing for the start of the Australian Open in Melbourne on Sunday (12 January).
The 23-year-old is in the main draw for the first time and faces the Spanish number 2 Jessica Bouzas Maneiro. Kartal is ranked 85th in the world and Bouzas Maneiro is 54th.
The winner will earn about £66,000 and would face either the American player Sloane Stephens or the world number 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the second round.
The Belarusian is also the top seed, having won the tournament for the past two years.
Kartal is scheduled to play one of the first matches on the opening day and is first up on court 5 at Melbourne Park at 3am GMT.
When she last played at the Australian Open two years ago, she lost in the first qualifying round, but since then her career has taken off.
Last year she entered Wimbledon ranked 295 as a qualifier and made it to the third round of the main tournament – only the third Briton to do so in the open era.
In September, she made it through qualifying at the Jasmin Open, in Tunisia, going on to win the tournament – her first WTA title.
As a result, she broke into the top 100 for the first time and currently has the best singles ranking of her career.
Kartal, has been playing at Pav and Ave – the Pavilion and Avenue Tennis Club – in The Droveway, Hove, since she was six years old.
Her childhood rival Emma Raducanu is also in the draw, facing the 27th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Katie Boulter and Jodie Burrage are the other two British women in the single’s draw along with Jack Draper, Cameron Norrie and Jacob Fearnley. Draper and Boulter are among the seeds.
The tournament is due to end on Australia Day, Sunday 26 January, with the single’s finalists competing for a prize of more than £1.5 million.
Congratulations to Sonnay and to her two wonderful coaches Ben and Martin at Pav and Ave!