Sonay Kartal upsets Svitolina to reach her first WTA 1000 semi-final in Wuhan

Three tournaments into her comeback from a back stress fracture that kept her away for more than six months, Sonay Kartal has beaten fifth seed Elina Svitolina 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the Wuhan Open, a WTA 1000 event. On Saturday the 24-year-old Briton plays a WTA 1000 last four for the first time, against Jelena Ostapenko.

On a protected ranking Kartal sits at world No. 170, far from her career-high No. 44 of July 2025, which makes her the lowest-ranked semi-finalist in the tournament’s history, as Tennis Watcher notes. Since her return she has won six of eight matches, and she had not dropped a set all week: Kalinina, then ninth seed Bencic and 15th seed Paolini had fallen before Svitolina. The run makes her the first British woman into the last four in Wuhan and, per Tennishead, only the second Briton into a WTA 1000 semi-final since the format began, after Johanna Konta.

One break, after two hours

Kartal had taken Svitolina’s serve early and led by a set. The world No. 6 called a medical timeout for her right arm, per the BBC, then worked her way back into the match and took the second set. In the third, both serves held until 5-4, when Kartal broke in the final game to close it out after two hours and two minutes.

“Despite winning the first set pretty comfortably, I knew what a great fighter she is, so I knew that until the very last point was played, I was never safe,” Kartal said on court. “I’m breaking new ground this week. I’ve never reached a semis of a WTA 1000… The atmosphere was amazing today.”

The WTA Finals race tightens for Svitolina

For Svitolina the timing could hardly be worse: she is chasing one of the last two WTA Finals spots, and Wuhan is the final WTA 1000 of the season. Beaten in Beijing last week by the eventual champion Zheng Qinwen, she leaves China on her 13th quarter-final of the year, the most on tour, and on a best Wuhan run that stays a 2014 semi-final.

Across the net, Saturday brings Kartal against Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, who saw off 11th seed Diana Shnaider 7-6 (8-6), 6-1. In the top half, Iga Swiatek plays Ann Li. “I don’t think Ostapenko is going to enjoy Kartal’s game style with the amount of balls Sonay is going to put back into play,” said Naomi Broady, a pundit on Sky Sports Tennis.

Saturday in Wuhan: a WTA 1000 semi-final between the balls Kartal keeps in play and the ones Ostapenko takes early. A place in the final is the prize.