MELBOURNE: When a ball girl fainted due to heat during the second set, Türkiye’s Zeynep Sönmez (World No. 112) and Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova (World No. 11) briefly halted their Australian Tennis Open match to help her, here on Monday (19th Jan, 2026).
As the child, who stood beside the chair of the umpire, fell flat on her back, Ekaterina Alexandrova rushed to fetch ice cubes and Zeynep Sönmez helped the youngster walk to shade.
Zeynep Sönmez went to grab her and said “sit down and drink something, you’re not fine”. She said when they were walking “she fainted so luckily I grabbed her. She was really shaking.” Talking to BBC Sports Zeynep Sönmez stated: “I always say It is more important to be a good “As we were walking she fainted so luckily I grabbed her. She was really shaking.” She said: “It was just my instinct to help her and I think everyone would do the same. I’m happy I got to help.”
The ball girl managed to get back to her feet and was helped off court by medical staff, with play resuming after a six-minute delay. Meanwhile, it was proclaimed by Tennis Australia that the youngster was given medical treatment before sending to their homes.
Tennis Australia confirmed that the girl had received medical attention on site before going home.
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After a two hour and 37 minutes match, 11th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova was beaten by Zeynep Sönmez 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 upsetting the expected results in the singles match in the Australian Open main draw. For Turkish tennis Zeynep Sönmez’s victory is a turning point on the level of Grand Slam, as by beating World Number eleven Ekaterina Alexandrova, Zeynep Sönmez became the first Turkish female player to reach Australian Open 2nd round.
Newspakistan.tv
