Sonay Kartal beat fifth seed Elina Svitolina 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 in the Wuhan Open quarter-final to reach the semi-finals. The 24-year-old Briton, who missed more than six months with a stress fracture in her back, has now won six of eight matches since returning from injury and reached her first WTA 1000 semi-final. Kartal, who used a protected ranking to enter the draw, had earlier defeated 15th seed Jasmine Paolini and ninth seed Belinda Bencic in Wuhan. Kartal broke Svitolina at 5-4 in the decider to seal the win after Svitolina took a medical timeout for treatment on her right arm during the second set. Kartal said on court she knew "what a great fighter" Svitolina is and that she showed "solid composure" throughout. Kartal is only the second British player, after Johanna Konta, to reach a WTA 1000 semi-final since the format began in 2009. She will face 2017 French Open champion Jeļena Ostapenko, who beat 11th seed Diana Shnaider 7-6 (8-6), 6-1, in the semi-final on Saturday.
