Sonay Kartal wins China Open opener on return to WTA Tour

Sonay Kartal marked her return to the WTA Tour with a 6-2 6-3 victory over Spanish qualifier Andrea Lazaro Garcia at the China Open on Thursday. The British player advanced in Beijing after almost six months away from the tour, with the result confirmed by the WTA's official match record.

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According to BBC Sport, the 24-year-old injured her lower back at Indian Wells in March. She returned to competition at the Billie Jean King Cup on 22 September, narrowly losing to Czech player Marie Bouzkova, then ranked 26th. The Beijing victory therefore follows an earlier comeback appearance in the international team competition, rather than marking her first match since the injury.

The WTA statistics show Kartal converted five of nine break points while losing serve only once. She faced just two break points across the match, saving one, and won 60 of the 106 points played. Lazaro Garcia served four double faults compared with Kartal's one, as the Briton established an advantage in both sets.

Kartal also put 31 of her 45 first serves into court, a rate of 68.9%, and won 23 of those 31 points. On return, she took 17 of the 26 points played behind Lazaro Garcia's second serve. Those figures underline the pressure she applied without needing a high ace count: she finished with one ace, while her opponent hit two.

Beijing has already been the setting for a significant result in Kartal's career. Her official WTA profile records that she reached her first WTA 1000 quarter-final there in 2025, losing to Linda Noskova. That season also included her first Grand Slam fourth-round appearance at Wimbledon and a career-high ranking of 44. She won her first tour singles title at Monastir in 2024.

Kartal is now ranked 129th and will face China's Wang Xinyu, the 31st seed, in the next round, BBC Sport reported. The straight-sets opening win gives her another match in Beijing as she resumes her tour schedule following the lengthy injury interruption.