Sonay Kartal beat fifth seed Elina Svitolina 6-2 2-6 6-4 in the Wuhan Open quarter-finals on Friday, and she has reached her first WTA 1000 semi-final. The 24-year-old Briton is still working her way back from a long injury break.
Kartal missed more than six months with a stress fracture in her back. She has since dropped to 170 in the world, though she reached a career-high 44 last summer. She is using a protected ranking to enter events. The win over Svitolina was her sixth in eight matches since coming back.
A tough three-set match
Kartal broke Svitolina early in the first set and kept control from there. Svitolina, the Ukrainian ranked sixth in the world, then took a medical timeout for treatment on her right arm. She returned strongly and won the second set 6-2 to force a decider.
The third set stayed tight. Neither player found a clear edge until Kartal broke serve at 5-4 to close out the match.
Kartal had not dropped a set in Wuhan before this match. In the earlier rounds she beat 15th seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy and ninth seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.
“It was solid composure from me throughout,” Kartal said on court. She said she knew what a great fighter Svitolina is, so she “was never safe” in the match. She added that the week was “breaking new ground” for her and thanked the crowd for the atmosphere.
Ostapenko next
Kartal plays Jelena Ostapenko in the semi-final on Saturday. Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, beat 11th seed Diana Shnaider 7-6 (8-6) 6-1 after a tense first set.
The other quarter-finals pair Poland’s Maja Chwalinska, the 16th seed, with Greece’s Maria Sakkari. American Ann Li meets seventh seed Iga Swiatek, a six-time Grand Slam winner.
Source: BBC Sport
