'I believe in my team 100%': Sonmez thrives in temporary coaching partnership

MADRID -- For Zeynep Sonmez, the 2026 season on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz has been one of consistent progress.

Beginnin the season ranked No. 110 in the PIF WTA Rankings after cracking the top 70 in October, the Turkish No. 1 has returned to that mark with a now, recent career-high singles rank of No. 67, propelled by a third-round run at the Australian Open. There, she became the first Turkish player to win a main-draw match at the tournament in an upset of 11th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Furthermore, a quarterfinal run at Merida, and most recently, a third round run at the Mutua Madrid Open have been part of the positive results for where the 23-year-old currently stands on tour.

Much of this early success can be credited to a blossoming, temporary coaching partnership with Issam Jellali, current coach of former World No. 2 Ons Jabeur who has been working with Sonmez this season while Jabeur is on maternity leave after welcoming her son Elyan. Plus, Sonmez has worked closely with Mehmet Bayraktar, an integrative perfomance and wellness coach who is Sonmez' permanent fitness and mental coach.

"The preseason we had the plan and now it’s working so well," Jellali said in Madrid alongside Sonmez and Bayrakar in a joint interview with wtatennis.com. "There [are] a few details on her game that we are working on, definitely to have more tools. And then understanding her game, her main strength and try to use it as much as possible. We are doing good and going on the right track."

"I think she got stronger compared to last year," Bayraktar added. "She hasn't lost her quickness while she was getting stronger, actually. And she's still fast. So that's very important. "But also improving, slowing the game, managing the expectations, and doing what she wants to do, not letting someone else to do it so she's leading it herself. So those are the important points and she's been doing that greatly."

Sonmez spent part of the offseason leading into 2026 training at Jabeur's academy in Dubai, where Jellali serves as the director. During the Australian swing, Jellali assisted Sonmez remotely during her time in Brisbane and Melbourne before joining Sonmez and Bayraktar ahead of the Middle East swing. Jabeur and Sonmez are good friends, which helped bridge the connection seamlessly to the partnership while Jabeur is away from the tour.

Sonmez, smartly, isn't one that can be easily convinced. She knew that it would take a few months to see the full vision of the temporary partnership start to unfold, and the 2024 Merida champion is on board.

"When I get to know someone or when I'm convinced about something -- it's not easy for me to get convinced on something -- but once I'm convinced, I'm 100% in," Sonmez said. "I think first couple of months, we got to know each other, and I believe in my team 100%."

Technically, Sonmez has seen the results start to come to fruition, particularly on her serve and return games, where she said she's seen significant improvement in the past couple of months. She feels she's starting to add more variety to her game, too.

"I think I'm a bit more aggressive player than I used to be," Sonmez said. "I was playing more one-dimensional tennis. Now, I have more things. I can defend and I can play aggressive too so I'm mixing everything, so sometimes in the match when some things are not working, I can always change. I feel I have more in my pocket that I could use."

Much of the sport can be a mental game, and Sonmez said she has made massive strides in that aspect working with Bayraktar. She knows there will be a mixture of positive days on tough days during training, but knows she has a supportive team who understands her and how to react appropriately when coaching.

"I know that they know how to do it, so it makes me feel like, 'we got this,'" Sonmez said.

Sonmez added that as the season progresses, she simply wants to make it an objective to always enjoy her time on court whether training or competitively in matches, a credit to her developing mindset on tour.

In addition, as the partnership remains until Jabeur's return, Sonmez and her team have goals they want to reach. They're lofty, but create a driven mindset for Sonmez, one of the younger players on the tour.

"We have big expectation. We have big goals, but we are working on a weekly basis," Jellali said. "We have a few things to improve. We are working on a lot of things, and our main goal -- I don't know about her -- but I can say that definitely she wants to be top 10, and why not No. 1 in the world?

"When? How? How long it's gonna take? But I think that’s the goal for every player that’s here on the tour."

"We as a coaching team are lucky because Zeynep is someone that when she understands what she needs to do -- mentally, physically, and technically -- she can capture it fast," Bayraktar added. "The way that she shows on the court, the more she does that, the more she inspires us, so that's where I'm looking at for her season."

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