Kartal Stuns Svitolina as Ostapenko Reaches Wuhan Semifinals

Sonay Kartal waited nine games for a chance to break Elina Svitolina in the third set in Wuhan, and when it finally came it was match point. The Briton took it, beating the #5 seed 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 in two hours and three minutes to reach her first WTA 1000 semifinal, where she will face Jelena Ostapenko, a 7-6 (6), 6-1 winner over #11 Diana Shnaider.

Kartal's win carried a measure of revenge. Svitolina had beaten her in all of their previous meetings, most recently in a third-set tiebreak in the Auckland quarterfinals in January. After Kartal ran away with the opener and Svitolina answered just as firmly in the second, the decider was a serving contest until the 10th game, when Kartal broke for the match. "I know her pretty well, so I know that until the last point was played, I was never safe," she said.