Two in-form qualifiers, but only one who really dominates on grass

Viktorija Golubic, right-handed, 33 years old, WTA No. 82, has been one of the revelations of this tournament since the qualifying rounds. Three consecutive wins on grass in Nottingham this week, including one over Kenin 6-2 4-6 6-3 yesterday with 29 winners and remarkable solidity on serve. At 33, the Swiss player is playing her best tennis in a long time: 39–27 in 2026 across all surfaces, 7–3 over her last 10 matches. But the WTA grass record over the last 52 weeks tells a more nuanced story: just 1–1 (50%). Her career WTA grass record is still balanced at 51.2%. She holds serve better than Sönmez (72.3% of service games won vs 69.5%), she saves break points better (63.6% vs 56.7%), and she lands her first serve at 69.9% compared to 61.4% for the Turk. On paper, in terms of serving, Golubic is superior. But her 0.0% Tiebreaks Won on grass over 52 weeks and her Dominance Ratio below 1 (0.883) show that she loses control of the rallies when the match gets tight.

Zeynep Sönmez, right-handed, 24 years old, WTA No. 67, produced the upset of the tournament yesterday by taking out Fernandez 6-4 7-6(1) without losing her composure. She is 5–2 (71.4%) on WTA grass over the last 52 weeks compared to 1–1 for Golubic. This is the central statistic for this match. On grass, Sönmez wins structurally. She converts 56.1% of her break points versus 50.0% for the Swiss. She wins 38.5% of her return games compared to 35.4% for Golubic. Her Match Efficiency Ratio of 2.369 versus 1.887 for Golubic indicates that she makes better use of her opportunities. And where Golubic collapses in tiebreaks on grass (0%), Sönmez wins them at 66.7%. She is a player who knows how to handle pressure in the key moments on this surface.