WUHAN — Sonay Kartal continued her strong return from a six-month layoff with a stress fracture in her back, beating world No. 48 Anhelina Kalinina 7-5, 6-3 at the Wuhan Open to reach the second round. The 24-year-old British No. 5, now ranked No. 170 in the world, needed one hour and 31 minutes to secure the straight-sets victory and advance to the last 32.
Kartal served four aces and won 23 of 30 points when landing her first serve, closing out the win on her third match point after Kalinina saved two. The result follows her run to the third round at the Beijing Open earlier this month, her first WTA tournament in six months since the injury.
Kartal returned to action last month for Great Britain at the Billie Jean King Cup, where she narrowly lost to Czech world No. 26 Marie Bouzkova, before beating Spain's Andrea Lazaro Garcia and Wang Xinyu in Beijing ahead of a loss to Armenia's Alina Charaeva. She will next face Swiss ninth seed Belinda Bencic in Wuhan.
The Wuhan field will be without home favorite Zheng Qinwen, who withdrew 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 Beijing triumph came in Zheng Qinwen's title win over Mirra Andreeva.