Players Sports23 Desk 1 min read
Sonay Kartal Stuns Ninth Seed Bencic in Wuhan Comeback
Seven months after a stress fracture halted her rise, the 24-year-old Briton produced the second-biggest win of her career — a 6-0 7-5 dismantling of the world No. 12.
Sonay Kartal's comeback gathered real pace in Wuhan. The 24-year-old Briton swept aside ninth seed Belinda Bencic 6-0 7-5 — the second-biggest win of her career by ranking — to reach the third round of the Wuhan Open.
It is a striking result for a player who stood at a career-high world No. 44 after last year's Wimbledon, only to lose six months to a stress fracture in her back and slide to 170th.
Momentum rebuilt
The fracture, suffered in March, forced Kartal to miss three of this year's four Grand Slams. Since returning for Great Britain at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals last month, she has won four of five matches — including a third-round run in Beijing where she beat 31st seed Wang Xinyu, and a Wuhan opener against Ukraine's Anhelina Kalinina.
Bencic, a Wimbledon semi-finalist last year and the world No. 12, is the highest-profile casualty yet of that rebuild.
"Can I sustain it?"
"I trusted that I would be able to get my level back — I just didn't know how quickly," Kartal said. "I can produce the level, but can I sustain it? I think that's going to be the hardest challenge. I'm happy to be back, I'm feeling good."
She faces either 15th seed Jasmine Paolini or 20-year-old Czech Nikola Bartunkova for a quarter-final place. Elsewhere in Wuhan, former world No. 1 Iga Swiatek beat Magdalena Frech 6-2 6-1 for her 40th win of the season.