Kartal wins again as impressive comeback continues

Britain's Sonay Kartal continued her impressive comeback from long-term injury with a comfortable win over former Wimbledon finalist Jasmine Paolini to reach the Wuhan Open quarter-finals.

Kartal, 24, missed more than six months with a stress fracture in her back, but has won five of her seven matches since returning to action.

The former world number 44 ruthlessly brushed aside Italian 15th seed Paolini in a 6-2 6-0 victory, further validating Kartal's patient approach to recovering from the first serious injury of her career.

It was another statement performance from Kartal, backing up her straight-set win over ninth seed Belinda Bencic in the previous round.

"Against someone as good as Jasmine is, I knew I had to be solid from the start and not let up. From my side, it was a pretty flawless performance," Kartal said.

How patience has been a virtue for Kartal

Kartal was riding the crest of a wave in the early part of the season, having broken into the world's top 50, reached two WTA quarter-finals and recorded notable wins over top-class opponents.

Victories over 2025 Australian Open champion Madison Keys and former world number eight Emma Navarro in Indian Wells led to a meeting with now world number one Elena Rybakina in the fourth round.

However, Kartal was forced to retire with the back injury which proved more serious than first thought.

After initially hoping she would make a quick recovery, the pain left Kartal unable to brush her teeth without "being in agony" and led to some difficult decisions.

Missing Wimbledon was a particularly tough choice, especially given she reached the fourth round of her home Grand Slam in 2025, but resigning herself to the fact she could not rush a comeback has proved to be a wise decision.

Her first match back a little over three weeks ago - representing Great Britain at the BJK Cup - ended in a narrow defeat, before she won two matches to reach the Beijing third round in her WTA Tour return.

"At the BJK Cup, the level I produced was much higher than I thought and I left super happy," Kartal said.

"Now I'm growing in confidence with every match I'm playing."

Using a protected injury ranking to play, Kartal carried that momentum into Wuhan.

She has not dropped a set in victories over Ukrainian world number 48 Anhelina Kalinina, 2020 Olympic champion Bencic and two-time major finalist Paolini.

Kartal maintained a high level from the baseline as Paolini unravelled with a series of unforced errors, securing a meeting with Ukraine's Elina Svitolina - a four-time Grand Slam semi-finalist - in the quarter-finals on Friday.

Meanwhile, Alexander Zverev continued to show why he is the best men's player in the world this season with a dominant 6-4 6-4 win over Australia's world number nine Alex de Minaur in the Shanghai Masters quarter-finals.

In the week that Zverev was assured of finishing the season as the year-end ATP number one, the 29-year-old German will now face Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the semi-finals.

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