WUHAN — Britain's Sonay Kartal continued her impressive return from injury with a straight-sets victory over world number 48 Anhelina Kalinina, winning 7-5 6-3 in an hour and 31 minutes to reach round two of the Wuhan Open. The 24-year-old, now ranked 170th in the world after six months sidelined with a stress fracture in her back, showed sharp form to secure a top-50 scalp as the British number five.
Kartal served four aces and won 23 of 30 points when landing her first serve against Ukraine's Kalinina, sealing her place in the last 32 at the third time of asking after her opponent saved two match points. She will now face Swiss ninth seed Belinda Bencic for a place in the third round.
It marks another strong step since Kartal returned to action last month for Great Britain at the Billie Jean King Cup, where she narrowly lost to Czech world number 26 Marie Bouzkova. She then reached the third round at the Beijing Open earlier this month — her first WTA tournament in six months — with wins over Spain's Andrea Lazaro Garcia and Wang Xinyu before falling to Armenia's Alina Charaeva.
Meanwhile, home favourite Zheng Qinwen withdrew from Wuhan after becoming the first Chinese player to win the China Open in Beijing. Zheng, who underwent elbow surgery last year and struggled with form and fitness over the past 12 months before her recent upturn, said in a statement her "body is feeling very fatigued" after "an intense run of matches". Her triumph in Beijing capped a difficult year and prompted her decision to skip her home WTA 1000 event.