Regaining her ranking just 10 matches into her comeback will have real significance for the 2027 season.

Kartal will no longer need to use a protected ranking to enter tournaments including the Australian Open, meaning she can have greater choice over when and where to play as she continues to manage her workload.

“My goal on the Asian swing was just to try to defend those points I had from last year and make the use of the protected ranking worthwhile,” said Kartal, who also won two matches at the China Open in Beijing.

“I think I’ve gone above and beyond that. The goal has been achieved this week and I’m in a good spot for the rest of the year and next year.”

Kartal’s re-emergence is timely too when considering the bigger picture of British success at the highest level.

With Kartal absent from three of the four majors, no British women went past the second round of a Grand Slam tournament in 2026.

Kartal has only managed to do that twice in her career – reaching the third round at Wimbledon in 2024 and going one stage further last year – but showed in Wuhan she has the ability to thrive at elite level.

She became the first British player to reach a WTA 1000 final since Johanna Konta in 2019 and, despite losing to 22nd-ranked Chwalinska, still recorded the best result by a British woman since Emma Raducanu won the US Open title in 2021.



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