Patience has been paramount for Kartal, who announced herself to the wider British public by reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon last year, as she dealt with a stress fracture in her back.

Kartal had earned impressive victories over 2025 Australian Open champion Madison Keys and 2024 US Open semi-finalist Emma Navarro at Indian Wells in March, but was forced to retire from a fourth-round meeting with now world number one Elena Rybakina.

The issue proved more serious than first thought, leading to the longest absence from competitive action of Kartal’s career.

But she has returned to the WTA Tour playing like she has never been away.

Known for her consistent hitting from the baseline, supreme athleticism and tenacity, Kartal added Ukraine’s Svitolina to her list of high-profile victories in Wuhan with a 6-2 2-6 6-4 triumph.

Kartal beat Italian 15th seed Jasmine Paolini – a Wimbledon and French Open finalist in 2024 – in the last 16, backing up the win over Swiss ninth seed Belinda Bencic – who won the Tokyo Olympic title in 2021 – in the second round.

Since returning to competitive action little more than three weeks ago – when she represented Great Britain at the BJK Cup – Kartal has won six of her eight matches.

Next up is 2017 French Open champion Jeļena Ostapenko, who came through a tense opening set to beat 11th seed Diana Shnaider 7-6 (8-6) 6-1.

Kartal is only the second British player, after Johanna Konta, to reach a WTA 1000 semi-final since the format’s introduction in 2009.

“It’s one of the best tennis weeks of my life – results-wise you could say it is the best,” Kartal said.

“I’m very happy to be back at this level. It’s easy to come out and play a blinder in one match, but I’m happy I have kept this consistency.”