Wuhan: world No. 170 Kartal topples Svitolina to set up Ostapenko semi
Britain's Sonay Kartal beats the world No. 6 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 to reach her first WTA 1000 semi-final, where she will face Jelena Ostapenko.
Archive image · Photo: si.robi / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped and resized)
The surprises keep coming at the WTA 1000 event in Wuhan: Sonay Kartal, ranked just 170th after a long injury lay-off, beat fifth seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 on Friday. The Briton, who entered on a protected ranking, is into a WTA 1000 semi-final for the first time. She had earlier knocked out Belinda Bencic and Jasmine Paolini (6-2, 6-0) without dropping a set.
Svitolina, the world No. 6, took the second set after a medical time-out, but Kartal broke her at 5-4 in the decider. "It was solid composure from me throughout. It's breaking new ground for me this week," Kartal told BBC Sport. She converted three of her five break points, Svitolina two of seven.
In the semi-finals Kartal meets Jelena Ostapenko. The 2017 French Open champion, who had already beaten Jessica Pegula this week, defeated 11th seed Diana Shnaider 7-6 (8-6), 6-1. Later on Friday, Iga Swiatek plays Ann Li, Aryna Sabalenka's conqueror, and Maja Chwalinska faces Maria Sakkari for the other two semi-final spots.