Sonay Kartal has Coco Gauff in her sights as she relishes chance to play on bigger Wimbledon stage

Kartal, 22 – who has made a stop in Yorkshire a regular part of her grass court preparation with three consecutive appearances in Ilkley – beat her second top 50 opponent of the week to set up a meeting with US Open champion Coco Gauff.

A place in the last 32 means Kartal will pocket at least £143,000 alongside a 160 rise in the WTA rankings.

“I think it's going to help me for a little while,” the world No 298 responded on how her biggest payday will help her career.

“It will propel me into playing the bigger tournaments and be on the bigger stage, which is what I want to be doing at the end of the day.

“Obviously it takes a little bit of stress away knowing that financially it will be okay.

“Yeah, it's going to be a super tough match,” she added on playing American Gauff.

“There's a reason why she is No 2 in the world. Those are the moments you dream of as a little kid.

“If it is Centre Court, I'll be super proud to be on that court. It's a really special thing.”

Scattered showers halted the start of play on the tournament’s third day until 1pm, with the court covers rolled off and back on as anticipation built.

Visitors remained keen to take in as much of the Wimbledon experience as they could, queuing for strawberries and cream, lining the shops on Centre and No 1 Court in search of souvenirs, and posing for photos with the statue of British tennis legend Fred Perry.

An ironic cheer rang around Court 3 at the announcement of a start to play ‘as soon as possible.’ The optimism proved short lived when another shower brought the players back off court during only the third game.

Returning from the short delay serving at 40-0, Kartal lost the next four points setting up a break point for her French opponent Clara Burel (23). The Brighton star showed her mettle with a slice backhand down the line which brought a forehand miss from the world No 45.

At 3-2 in the first set, the Brighton star piled some pressure on the Burel serve, which started to falter with four double faults helping Kartal reach a break point. The Brit converted with a good return on a deep first serve which earned a forehand unforced error.

Kartal consolidated the break with eight consecutive points in her own service games, confirming the first set with an inside out forehand winner for 6-3.

Things were starting to look all too easy for Kartal who was 3-0 up with two breaks early in the second set with Burel seeming to miss under any kind of pressure.

However, the French star managed to lift herself and immediately earned one of the breaks back with a nice drop shot and backhand volley combination to send nerves around Court 3.

After saving break points in the seventh game of the set, Burel levelled the set after bringing up her own break point with a nice backhand pass down the line and converted with a forehand drop volley.

Momentum now with the pre-match favourite, she managed to avoid the tiebreak by winning a set point against serve by pulling the home favourite out of position before a deft volley into the open court.

After saving two break points in the first game of the deciding set, Kartal seemed to find her rhythm again to get to 2-2 with a confident hold.

A nice forehand crosscourt forehand on an awkward high bouncing drop shot brought the Brit to break point and luck was on her side when her menacing forehand dropped over via the net cord.

Keen to not let her opportunity slip again, Kartal held her next two service games to love and 30 to move within a game of the third round.

Given the opportunity to get over the line quickly thanks to a poor miss from midcourt by Burel, Kartal made no mistake with a delicate drop volley after pinning her opponent back with some big hitting.

On getting over the line with a 6-3 5-7 6-3 victory, Kartal said: “I'm super proud of today's performance.

“How I managed to keep a level head throughout the match. I haven't had much time to digest it still.”

Gauff reached the third round after beating qualifier Anca Todoni 6-2 6-1 in 66 minutes.

Emma Raducanu joins Kartal in the third round after victory in the third match on No 1 Court, while at least one more Brit will go through in the women’s singles with Katie Boulter and Harriet Dart set to meet in the second round.

Naomi Osaka’s first Wimbledon campaign in five years was emphatically halted by a swift 6-4 6-1 second-round defeat to world No 17 Emma Navarro.

Elina Svitolina, a semi-finalist last year, had to dig deep to edge out Magda Linette in three sets.