Sonay Kartal beats Kalinina in Wuhan to set up Bencic meeting

Sonay Kartal advanced to the second round of the Wuhan Open with a 7-5 6-3 victory over Anhelina Kalinina, adding a win against a top-50 opponent to her comeback from injury. According to BBC Sport, the British player completed the match in one hour and 31 minutes and will next meet Switzerland's Belinda Bencic, the ninth seed.

The result comes after a lengthy interruption to Kartal's season. The 24-year-old had been out with a stress fracture in her back and has fallen to 170th in the world rankings. Britain's number five returned to WTA tournament action at the Beijing Open earlier this month, ending a six-month absence from that level of competition by reaching the third round.

Against Kalinina, ranked 48th, Kartal won 23 of the 30 points played behind her first serve and hit four aces, BBC Sport reported. She needed three match points to finish the contest, with the Ukrainian saving the first two before Kartal secured her place in the last 32. The straight-sets result followed a first set decided by a two-game margin.

Kartal's first competitive appearance after the injury had come last month while representing Great Britain in the Billie Jean King Cup. She narrowly lost there to the Czech Republic's Marie Bouzkova, who was ranked 26th. Her subsequent Beijing run included victories against Spain's Andrea Lazaro Garcia and China's Wang Xinyu before defeat by Armenia's Alina Charaeva.

The Wuhan win therefore extends a return that has already taken Kartal through team competition and back onto the WTA circuit in China. Bencic now stands between her and another third-round appearance, after Kartal progressed through her opening match without dropping a set.

Elsewhere at the tournament, Zheng Qinwen withdrew after becoming the first Chinese player to win the China Open. BBC Sport reported that Zheng cited fatigue following a demanding sequence of matches. She underwent elbow surgery last year and experienced difficulties with both fitness and form over the following 12 months before her recent improvement culminated in the Beijing title.