Patience has been key for Kartal, who announced herself to the wider British public by reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon last year while suffering from a stress fracture in her back.
Kartal had scored impressive victories against 2025 Australian Open champion Madison Keys and 2024 US Open semi-finalist Emma Navarro at Indian Wells in March, but was forced to withdraw from a fourth-round meeting with now world number one Elena Rybakina.
The problem turned out to be more serious than expected, leading to the longest absence of Kartal’s career.
But she returned to the WTA circuit playing as if she had never been away.
Known for her consistent strikes from the baseline, supreme athleticism and tenacity, Kartal added Ukrainian Svitolina to her list of high-profile victories in Wuhan with a 6-2 2-6 6-4 triumph.
Kartal beat 15th-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini – a finalist at Wimbledon and the French Open in 2024 – in the round of 16, confirming her victory over Switzerland’s ninth-seeded Belinda Bencic – who won the 2021 Tokyo Olympic title – in the second round.
Since returning to competition just over three weeks ago – when she represented Great Britain at the BJK Cup – Kartal has won six of her eight matches.
Next up is 2017 French Open champion Jeļena Ostapenko, who came through a tense first set to beat 11th seed Diana Shnaider 7-6 (8-6) 6-1.
Kartal is only the second British player, after Johanna Konta, to reach a WTA 1000 semi-final since the format was introduced in 2009.
“It’s one of the best tennis weeks of my life. In terms of results, you could say it’s the best,” Kartal said.
“I’m very happy to be back at this level. It’s easy to go out and play a blinder in one game, but I’m happy to have kept this consistency.”
Gn sports
