Kartal in the semis?

That seems complicated...

...and we're all wondering what she's doing there. The Brit has never really had a big weapon in her arsenal. Her thing? Get everything back in play until the opponent cracks. And the worst part is, it often works! Honestly, I’m not into it: her matches are often total slogs.

In Beijing, she got an almost perfect draw: first Parks, still the 2025 queen of double faults. Then an erratic, powerless Kasatkina. Finally, Maya Joint piling up unforced errors, finishing with an MTO and a bloody nose. She wasn’t herself. You could say the draw's been doing her favors.

But then she takes out her first top-10… and you start thinking there might be something there. She cracked the forehand, found some great spots to throw Andreeva off. A Russian whose mental fragility we've known since Roland-Garros, and who ended up folding against the Brit rock.

That said, for me it’s not enough. Linda has a big serve, sometimes spoiled by double faults, but overall in line with her ranking. She handled Potapova without blinking. At this tournament, she’s dictating in short patterns. And that’s exactly the kind of game that can leave Kartal with no answers in her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal.