BEIJING — Great Britain's Sonay Kartal continued her winning return at the China Open with a 6-3 6-2 victory over home hope Wang Xinyu in Beijing, while men's top seed Alexander Zverev cruised past China's Juncheng Shang 6-0 6-3 to book a quarter-final against Novak Djokovic on Sunday.
Kartal, 24, was playing only her second tour match after six months out with a back injury and delivered a dominant display against the 31st seed, hitting 12 winners against just 11 unforced errors compared to Wang's 24 and converting five of 14 break points. "I am super happy to play here and I think that shows in my tennis," Kartal said in her on-court interview, recalling her run to last year's quarter-final. "I've had a long time out but I am happy to make a return to this event - I am looking to equal or hopefully do better this year."
The 2025 Beijing quarter-finalist had slipped to 129 in the world after missing the majority of the season, including the past three Grand Slam tournaments, following her retirement injured against Rybakina at Indian Wells in March before returning at last month's Billie Jean King Cup Finals and beating Spain's Andrea Lazaro Garcia in her first tour match back. She had been expected to face newly crowned world number one Elena Rybakina in the last 32, but the top seed and US Open champion fell 6-3 4-6 3-6 to Armenian world number 118 Alina Charaeva, who had never before faced a top-20 player. Fellow Briton Harriet Dart, 30, also impressed as a qualifier before losing 2-6 6-3 6-3 to American 10th seed Iva Jovic, 18, after claiming three breaks to take the opening set.
Zverev, 29, maintained his fine form in a season that has featured his first two Grand Slam titles at the French Open and US Open to set up the meeting with Djokovic, 39, a six-time China Open champion who has never lost a match at the event in Beijing. The German will rise to number one in the world for the first time if he wins both the China Open and the Shanghai Masters starting Wednesday (7 October), with his chances boosted Saturday when current world number one Jannik Sinner withdrew from Shanghai with a knee injury. Sinner, who took the top spot in April from Spain's Carlos Alcaraz and has not played since beating Zverev in the final at Wimbledon in July, saw Alcaraz return from four months out with a wrist injury at the US Open in September and advance at the Japan Open in Tokyo on Saturday, saving four set points to beat Italy's Matteo Arnaldi 7-6 (8-6) 6-1 to set up a quarter-final against Canada's Denis Shapovalov, who beat Chile's Alejandro Tabilo 7-5 3-6 6-4.