Sonay Kartal's extraordinary week at the Wuhan Open continues. The 24-year-old Briton, ranked No 170, beat former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 7-6(9) 7-6(5) on Saturday to reach the first WTA 1000 final of her career, after saving all six set points she faced.
Two sets that should have gone the other way
Ostapenko led 4-1 in both sets and served for the first set twice, but Kartal broke back each time. The first-set tie-break went to 11-9, with Kartal saving three set points before converting her own third chance. In the second set Ostapenko broke early again; Kartal recovered, saved three more set points on her serve and won the tie-break 7-5 to close the match on her second match point after about two hours, according to reports carried by AOL and Interia.
The Latvian hit 50 winners but also made 41 unforced errors. "Wow! That was probably one of the toughest of matches I've played," Kartal said on court. "Mentally, I think this is one of the best performances I've had in my career."
A familiar opponent
Kartal had beaten Ostapenko before, notably in the first round of Wimbledon in 2025, and once again she drew the Latvian's big-hitting game into long, nervy rallies at the key moments. Ostapenko, a former Wuhan semi-finalist herself, had beaten Diana Shnaider in the quarter-finals and was the favourite on ranking, but she could not close out either set from a winning position.
A record-breaking run
Kartal is the lowest-ranked player to reach a WTA 1000 final since the category was introduced in 2009. She began the week with a ranking of 170 after six months out with a back injury, and has since beaten Belinda Bencic, Jasmine Paolini, fifth seed Elina Svitolina — in Friday's quarter-final — and now Ostapenko, five wins in a row over top-50 players across Beijing and Wuhan.
She is only the second British woman to reach a WTA 1000 final, after Johanna Konta, who won Miami in 2017. Her only previous title came at a WTA 250 in Monastir two years ago.
What it means
Reaching the final is expected to lift Kartal around 120 places to about No 50 on Monday, which would make her British No 1 ahead of Katie Boulter. A title would take her higher still.
Her opponent on Sunday will be the winner of the all-Polish semi-final between Iga Swiatek and Maja Chwalinska, played later on Saturday (our preview). Follow the final live on our tennis scores and the movement in the WTA rankings.
Sources
This article was written by TiebreakNews from the reporting below, checked against official results and rankings.
- AOL — Sonay Kartal makes history by reaching biggest final of her career in Wuhan
- Interia (via UA.News) — Kartal reaches WTA 1000 final in Wuhan
- Tennis World USA — Wuhan: World No. 170 Sonay Kartal takes out another big name to reach final