Arabic version: كارتال تبلغ نصف نهائي بطولة ووهان المفتوحة

According to BBC News, Britain’s Sonay Kartal beat fifth seed Elina Svitolina 6-2 2-6 6-4 to reach the Wuhan Open semi-finals. The 24-year-old’s quarter-final victory was her sixth in eight matches since returning from a long injury lay-off.

Kartal missed more than six months with a stress fracture in her back and has dropped to 170 in the world after the injury. She reached a career-high ranking of 44 last summer and is playing in Wuhan using a protected injury ranking.

She had not dropped a set on her way to the quarter-finals, having beaten 15th seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy and ninth seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland. Against world number six Svitolina, Kartal broke early in the first set before the Ukrainian took a medical timeout for treatment on her right arm.

Svitolina returned to take the second set 6-2, but Kartal broke serve at 5-4 in the deciding set to secure her place in the last four. Kartal said she knew “what a great fighter” Svitolina is and that she “was never safe” in the match. She added that it was “solid composure” throughout.

Kartal will play 2017 French Open champion Jeļena Ostapenko in her first WTA 1000 semi-final on Saturday. Ostapenko beat 11th seed Diana Shnaider 7-6 (8-6) 6-1. Kartal is the second British player, after Johanna Konta, to reach a WTA 1000 semi-final since the format began in 2009.