A great boom of thunder greeted Sonay Kartal and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova as they walked on to Centre Court for their last 16 meeting. Perhaps the weather gods knew of the high drama about to unfold.

At 34, Pavlyuchenkova has travelled a long road since she reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2016. As runner-up at Roland-Garros four years ago her ranking peaked at 11, only for a knee injury to relegate her to No.844 in 2023.

Just this February she was diagnosed with the strength-sapping Lyme disease infection. Yet at Wimbledon 2025 she came up with a hugely resourceful victory over Kartal, who herself has achieved so much this Fortnight that she is guaranteed to rise to a career-high ranking from her current No.51.

The Centre Court crowd did their best to lift their home star. But Pavlyuchenkova survived extraordinary tension to take it 7-6(3), 6-4.

“It’s incredible because I’ve always thought I’m not good on grass, and especially me getting older,” Pavlyuchenkova said. “I’m so proud of myself, competing with these young girls at this level.

“I was always a good player but crazy in my head. Now my mental toughness is better, fighting point by point.

“I got more determined after winning the first set. She was finding a really good rhythm, just grinding, and I was getting out of breath. But I stayed focused to finish it and I’m so happy.”

In the match itself Kartal’s early nerves dissipated, even as breaks mounted and momentum lurched. A point had to be replayed at 4-4 after no out call was made, but Pavlyuchenkova went on to take the first set after 78 minutes and 36 unforced errors from her racket.

Kartal didn’t flag, but Pavlyuchenkova’s mistakes had virtually disappeared.

“It’s not easy coming out on to the Centre Court as a Brit but I think I did a great job,” Kartal said later.

“I did a lot of things I should be proud of. This week I’ve proved to myself I can go deep in Slams and beat some of the best players on tour. I’m going away with a lot of motivation.”

When victory came for Pavlyuchenkova, it was impossible not to warm to the achievement after that Lyme disease diagnosis.

“It was horrible,” she has said. “I was fatigued, very neurotic and irritated. I constantly had headaches, especially in my right temple, pressing on my head all the time. I had brain fog. I would start practising and couldn’t see clearly.”

She took a six-week course of antibiotics but found the medics’ advice of “listen to your body” hard to follow, such was her ingrained desire to compete.

She had to take a week off before Eastbourne (where she reached the semi-finals before losing to eventual champion Maya Joint). Now she is feeling the benefit of a new partnership with a Belgian nutritionist who works with professional cyclists, which she feels has been transformational.

Happily she allowed herself a slice of the birthday cake presented to her by Wimbledon when she turned 34 last Thursday.

“That was such a nice touch,” she smiled. “I’m very old now. It feels like almost yesterday I was the youngest on tour, taking everything for granted. Every match I was winning I was like ‘pffft’ – just another match. Third round of a Slam, ‘pffft’. I was not appreciating anything because it was coming too easy.

“Now I appreciate every match and every moment. A few months ago I couldn’t even practise. Then you think, maybe you will never have this moment again.”

But with her place in the quarter-finals here, she does have the moment again.

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