Sonay Kartal knocks out Elina Svitolina to reach her first WTA 1000 semifinal in Wuhan

Sonay Kartal keeps finding another gear in her comeback.

The 24-year-old from Britain beat world No. 6 Elina Svitolina 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 on Friday to reach the semifinals of the Wuhan Open in China. It is the first WTA 1000 semifinal of her career.

A tight finish

Neither player faced a break point in the third set until the 10th game. Kartal earned her first break point there on match point. She converted it to close out the win in 2 hours, 3 minutes. It was her first win over Svitolina in three meetings and the second top-10 win of her career.

Back from six months out

Kartal missed six months with a back injury that dropped her ranking from No. 54 to No. 170. She returned last month. At No. 170 she is the third-lowest-ranked semifinalist at a WTA 1000 event since 2009, behind Sloane Stephens at No. 934 in Toronto in 2017 and Victoria Azarenka at No. 186 in Miami in 2018.

"I definitely did not think that I would find this level this fast," Kartal said. She said she was ready to come back in late August but chose to wait. "I think the biggest advice I received was don't rush it."

Her wins this week came over Anhelina Kalinina, No. 9 seed Belinda Bencic, No. 15 seed Jasmine Paolini and Svitolina.

Ostapenko is next

Kartal faces former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in Saturday's semifinals. They have split two meetings, both in 2025: Kartal won at Wimbledon while Ostapenko won at Eastbourne. Ostapenko beat No. 11 seed Diana Shnaider 7-5, 6-1 in her quarterfinal.

"She hits a great big ball on a grass court so I'm hoping this court can slow down a little bit for me," Kartal said.