SENOGLU CARRIES HOME HOPES AT 2023 MASTERS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

After captaining her nation at the ITF Masters World Team Championships (30-35-40-45-50) last week, former WTA player Ipek Senoglu is this week competing in the Individual Championships.

Born in Eskişehir in North Western Türkiye, it is fair to say that Senoglu has been a trailblazer throughout her career.

Senoglu created history at Wimbledon in 2004 when she became the first player from Türkiye to play in a Qualifying Draw at a Grand Slam.

"It was nice to be the first player from Türkiye to play in a Grand Slam," Senoglu tells itftennis.com. "It was an honour. It was huge in Türkiye and it even made the news. It was a great story. A Turkish girl who first saw Wimbledon on TV was actually playing there."

From accidently joining the queue when she first arrived at SW19 to slipping and sliding on the slick grass courts, Senoglu remembers in vivid detail her harrowing first experience of Wimbledon.

"I kept falling over in practice," she said. "I thought it was because I was nervous. I went to my bench and started crying hysterically."

Reflecting on the lack of support she received at that point of her career, Senoglu now sees it as her duty to help the next generation of Turkish tennis players.

"Looking back on my career and knowing the struggles I faced makes me want to help [Turkish] kids to walk the same road as me but with better conditions and education," added Senoglu.

After forging a successful professional career, Senoglu has now begun to compete on the ITF Masters Tour. Asked why she has started to play Masters tennis, Senoglu points to the "spirit" of ITF Masters events.

"Masters tennis is great because we all have something in common and that’s love for tennis," she said. "Tennis is the only sport you can do until you are eighty or ninety years old."

Given the challenges faced by the tennis community in Türkiye because of the recent earthquake, Senoglu considers what it means for her home nation to host the ITF Masters World Championships.

"It was very hard," she said. "I was thinking that I was not going to play the event given what has happened, but then I realised again that tennis can help people in hard moments."

Seeded fifth in the W40+, Senoglu will face tough competition if she is to create further history this week, as she aims to become the first player from Türkiye to win the ITF Masters World Championships.