Sonay Kartal will return to the top 100 of the WTA Rankings after she continued her brilliant run at the Wuhan Open with an upset win over Elina Svitolina in the quarter-finals.

Following an injury-ravaged 2026 season that saw her miss nearly seven months of action due to a back injury, Kartal has bounced back in style as she has reached her maiden WTA 1000 semi-final with three consecutive wins over seeded players.

The 24-year-old, who made her comeback at last week’s China Open, used her protected ranking to enter the Wuhan event and started her campaign with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Anhelina Kalinina before upsetting ninth seed Belinda Bencic 6-0, 7-5.

She followed that up with a stunning 6-2, 6-0 win over 15th seed Jasmine Paolini and she has gone on to complete a hat-trick of wins over seeded players by beating fifth seed Svitolina 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.

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“I think going into the match, despite winning the first set pretty comfortably, I knew what a great fighter she is so I knew that until the very last point was played I was never safe,” Kartal said on court.

“So yeah, super proud of the determination I managed to show in that match and I just think it was solid composure from me throughout.”

The win over world No 6 Svitolina is her second over a top-10 player as she previously beat Mirra Andreeva, who was ranked at No 5 at the time, in the 2025 China Open.

That win was in the fourth round in Beijing as she went on to reach the quarter-final, which before Friday, was her best run at a WTA 1000 event.

Surge In WTA Rankings

Kartal, who previously peaked at No 44 in the rankings, started the Wuhan Open at No 170 in the rankings, but she has skyrocketed 83 places to No 87 in the Live WTA Rankings with her run to the semi-final.

The 24-year-old didn’t have any points to defend in Wuhan so she is assured of adding 390 points to her total.

Her surge means she will be the new British No 2 behind Katie Boulter (No 58) as she has move past Francisco Jones (No 98) and Emma Raducanu (No 109).

Kartal will face Jelena Ostapenko, who defeated 11th seed Diana Shnaider 7-6 (8-6), 6-1, for a place in the final and a win over the Latvian could see her jump to No 50 in the Live WTA Rankings.