Brighton's Sonay Kartal reaches the Wuhan Open final after six months out

Sonay Kartal, the British player who lives in Brighton, reached the final of the Wuhan Open, a WTA^2,4 1000 event, in only her second tour-level tournament after six months out with a back injury. She lost Sunday’s final to Poland’s Maja Chwalinska 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Kartal came to Wuhan ranked No. 170. On the way to the final she beat Anhelina Kalinina, Belinda Bencic, Jasmine Paolini, the fifth seed Elina Svitolina and Jelena Ostapenko. Against Ostapenko, a former Grand Slam champion, she came back from 4-1 down in both sets and won two tie-breaks, 7-6 (9), 7-6 (5).

“Today was a dream come true,” she said after that semi-final, as reported by the WTA.

She took the first set of the final 6-2 and broke early in the second for a 2-0 lead. Chwalinska, the 16th seed, broke back, won the second set 6-4 and took the last three games of the match after breaking for 3-2 in the third. It took 2 hours, 43 minutes.

Had Kartal won, she would have been the second British woman to win a WTA 1000 title, after Johanna Konta in Miami in 2017. The WTA said she would also have been the lowest-ranked player ever to win one.

“I want to start with Maja, that was one heck of a battle,” Kartal said, according to the LTA^1,3,5. “Congratulations to you and your team.”

“Obviously it’s not the result I wanted and yes it’s going to sting for a little while but for me, the positives of this week outweigh the result today so I’m leaving here with my head up high and in a good spot overall.”

The week is expected to lift her 120 places in the rankings, from No. 170 to No. 50, the WTA said. Her LTA profile gives her career-high ranking as No. 44.

Kartal, 24, started playing at six at the Pavilion & Avenue Tennis Club and still trains there, according to her LTA profile. It also lists her as a Brighton & Hove Albion fan.