Zeynep Sonmez‘s 2026 Wimbledon singles campaign came to a halt in the second round following a 7-5, 6-3 defeat to American Claire Liu.

But the 24-year-old Turkish tennis player left an indelible mark on the tournament by taking a quiet yet powerful stance for Palestine, on the iconic grass courts of London.

Prevented by tournament organisers from displaying a pro-Palestinian solidarity brooch on her attire, Sonmez creatively attached a watermelon-themed vibration dampener on her racket strings.

The watermelon has become a symbol of Palestinian solidarity and pride among activists after Israel suppressed displays of the Palestinian flag. The watermelon not only has the same colours as Palestine’s flag – red, white and black – but the fruit is also one of the most popular crops for farmers across Palestine.

Speaking to Turkiye’s Anadolu agency shortly after her match, Sonmez exposed the bureaucratic hurdles she faced and what she perceived as a glaring double standard from international tennis administrators regarding political expression.

“I used to wear a brooch, but tournaments no longer allow me to wear it,” she said. Sonmez pointed out that tennis authorities have not barred athletes from displaying the Ukrainian flag in solidarity with Kyiv during the war with Russia.

“I argued with the managers that the Ukrainian flag is allowed, but the Palestinian one is not. Following our conversations, they stated that they strictly would not permit it,” she added.

Faced with a strict prohibition on her clothing accessories, Sonmez has adopted the watermelon symbol as a permanent fixture on her racket.

She said tournament officials could not object to her specific equipment choices, and her quiet defiance drew praise back home in Turkiye.

Turkish Youth and Sports Minister Osman Askin Bak publicly applauded her show of solidarity amid the humanitarian tragedy in Palestine and said this showed how sports can be used to promote universal human values.

Omer Celik, spokesperson for Turkiye’s governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), also praised Sonmez for keeping human dignity alive amid Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed at least 73,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023.

Sonmez expressed immense gratitude for the overwhelming wave of national support, emphasising to Anadolu that this backing made her feel as though she were never alone on the court.

From Istanbul ballgirl to the ‘golden racket’

Beyond the recent political spotlight, Sonmez is authoring an unprecedented chapter in Turkish sports history. Born in Istanbul on April 30, 2002, and with deep familial roots in the Black Sea coastal town of Arhavi, Sonmez’s journey to the upper echelons of tennis has been built on long-term dedication.

Her greatest dreams were ignited a decade ago when she worked as a humble ballgirl at a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tournament in Istanbul. Watching her compatriot Cagla Buyukakcay secure a historic title on home soil served as the ultimate inspiration for the young athlete.

Recognised early for her vast potential, local Turkish sports media confidently dubbed her the “golden racket of the future” as early as 2016. She has spent 15 years turning that prediction into reality, eventually earning the prestigious Athlete of the Year award at the Harper’s Bazaar Turkiye Women of the Year ceremony in Istanbul following her breakthrough 2025 season.

Guided by her current coaches, Issam Jellali and Mehmet Bayraktar, Sonmez’s meteoric rise was prompted by crucial technical adjustments and immense mental resilience. A critical turning point in her career took place after a heartbreaking Wimbledon qualifying defeat to Ukrainian player Daria Snigur.

Following this profound loss, Sonmez intentionally adopted a much more aggressive, net-rushing style to perfectly complement her famously strong movement and agility on the court.

Throughout her rapid ascent, she has fiercely emphasised the values of hope, relentless focus, and pure sportsmanship. This unwavering commitment to integrity was famously demonstrated during a notable fair-play moment at a tournament in Monastir. During a tense match, she and her opponent Eva Lys remarkably corrected line calls in each other’s favour, a rare display of mutual respect that earned her widespread admiration across the professional tour.

Rewriting the Turkish tennis record books

Her recent campaigns reflect a player operating at the absolute peak of her career. Sonmez has accumulated $625,019 in career prize money, registering a highly competitive win/loss record of 24 wins and 15 losses across 30 competitive matches this calendar year alone. Her tactical evolution has translated into historic, record-breaking milestones on the international tour.

She claimed her first career WTA 250 singles title at the hard-court event in Merida, Mexico, in 2024, dominating American Ann Li 6-2, 6-1 in a swift 70-minute final.

With continued strong showings across the globe, including a second-round appearance at the prestigious WTA 1000 event in Rome, Sonmez shattered Buyukakcay’s previous national ranking record of No 60. She officially became the highest-ranked Turkish tennis player in WTA history, climbing past the Top 60 to reach her current career-high rank of No 51 in the world.

Sonmez has repeatedly proven her formidable ability to compete with and defeat some of the sport’s elite on its biggest and most intimidating stages. She made history by becoming the very first Turkish player in the Open Era, man or woman, to reach the third round of a Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon in the summer of 2025.

Proving that her success on grass was no fluke, she successfully repeated this impressive third-round feat on the hard courts of the Australian Open in 2026. During her remarkable run in Melbourne, she defeated Hungary’s Anna Bondar in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4, and secured a stunning three-set victory over the 11th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova (7-5, 4-6, 6-4) before eventually falling to Yulia Putintseva. Furthermore, she added a huge milestone victory to her growing resume at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, where she thoroughly dominated world No 8 Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2 to secure the first Top 10 win of her career.

Within days of each other, two women made headlines for attempting risky ocean endurance feats. Kelsey Pfendler completed a solo row from California to Hawaii, becoming the fastest person to make the crossing, and Catherine Breed launched an attempt to become the first person to swim the entire California coastline. Together, their accomplishments challenge one of the most persistent stereotypes about women.

Pfendler Completes Solo Row In Record Time

On July 3, Kelsey Pfendler became the fastest person to row solo from California to Hawaii, completing the 2,400-mile crossing in 43 days. That’s nine days faster than the previous men’s record and 43 days faster than the previous women’s record. Launching from Monterey, California, in a 21-foot rowboat, Pfender documented the mental and physical challenges of her trip on social media.

In one video, Pfendler said she was sleeping only about 2.5 hours per night as she navigated big waves, high winds and storms. Although she capsized during the trip, she said one of her biggest challenges wasn’t the conditions, but being her own worst enemy. She described beating herself up when she overslept, adding that she ultimately learned, “The way you respond to problems is so much more important than the problem itself.”

In one of the last videos, posted as she was approaching her destination in Oahu, she said, “If any part of this made at least one person feel a little bit more powerful in their own skin, I couldn’t ask for anything else, and I’m happy.”

Then she offered her advice. “Think about trying to find your own big, hard, scary thing. You might not think that you are strong enough to finish it right now, but you’re definitely strong enough to start it, and you’ll find everything else along the way. I’m going to go finish my big, hard scary thing.”

The day after completing her journey, Pfendler told Good Morning America that she hoped her journey inspires women to take some chances.

Breed Starts California Coast Swim

Two days before Pfendler completed her historic row, Catherine Breed set out to be the first person to swim the entire California coastline. She set off from the Oregon-California border on July 1, and plans to swim about five to eight hours a day until she reaches the California-Mexico border sometime this fall. To attain this audacious goal, she will have to swim more than 800 miles in the open Pacific, vulnerable to great white sharks, elephant seals, venomous jellyfish, storms, currents and hypothermia.

Now on day seven, Breed is off the California coast near the town of Orick. She is accompanied by a small support crew in a sailboat.

“I feel nervous about it, of course. If I didn’t feel nervous, something is wrong with me,” she reported in a video released prior to her launch. One of her goals, according to her website: “I want to inspire and motivate others to see what they are capable of. It is a privilege to see how tough you can be.”

Prior to this attempt, Breed set several records including being the first person to swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to Half Moon Bay and breaking the record for the fastest swim between the Farallon Islands and the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Different Messages Women Receive About Risk

One of the most striking things about these feats is that, even today, their gender feels relevant to their stories. Their accomplishments challenge the stereotype that women are not risk-takers. Pfendler and Breed illustrate that women are clearly capable of pursuing ambitious goals with uncertain outcomes. However, women are not always encouraged to take risks.

Girls start receiving different messages about risk than boys do at a young age. In one classic study, parents encouraged boys more than girls to complete a challenging playground task without assistance, while more often stepping in to help girls, even though both sexes were equally capable of completing the task on their own. The researchers concluded that "parents communicate to young children in ways that may promote greater risk taking by boys than girls."

In the workplace, who takes risks is particularly important because risk-taking is often considered a leadership trait. If women are perceived as risk-averse, some argue, this would explain why fewer women reach leadership positions.

However, much like the young children, men and women at work receive different feedback for risk-taking. In five studies involving more than 2,200 participants, researchers found no overall gender difference in workplace risk-taking. Instead, they found that women reported receiving more negative feedback than men for taking risks at work. That made women less likely to take similar risks again in the future.

In one experiment, participants imagined accepting an unfamiliar assignment despite being unsure they could complete it, what Pfendler might call a “big, hard, scary thing.” When women and men received the same workplace consequences for taking on that risk (positive or negative), they were equally willing to take on a similar challenge in the future.

In the real world, however, the researchers found that women and men don’t receive the same feedback for risk-taking. Women were more likely to report experiencing negative feedback for taking on these workplace risks, while men reported more positive feedback. As a result, women were less likely to take those risks in the future.

Advice From Pfendler And Breed

Despite receiving the negative feedback, women still need to take on risks if they want to attain leadership roles. Pfendler and Breed’s stories are inspiring because they make it clear that taking risks doesn't mean there is no fear. It means moving forward despite the fear.

Pfendler urged others to find their own "big, hard, scary thing," while Breed hopes her journey inspires people to discover "how tough you can be." Their advice applies just as well in the workplace as it does on the Pacific Ocean.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com