Britain’s Harriet Dart reached the second WTA Tour semifinal of her career when she defeated fifth-seeded Paula Badosa from a set down at the Guangzhou Open in China.
The 30-year-old won 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 against Spain’s Badosa – who is ranked 54 places above him – in two hours and 15 minutes at the Nansha International Tennis Centre.
Dart’s first appearance in the semifinals of a tour event was at the Transylvania Open in Cluj-Napoca, where she lost to Karolina Pliskova in straight sets.
She will face 16-year-old Chinese wildcard Sun Xinran in the last four on Saturday.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been on the business end of a tournament, so I’m really looking forward to it,” Dart said.
“Tennis is very stressful, so to have the opportunity to compete again on Saturday is a big opportunity for me.”
Dart, who came through qualifying and had defeated second seed Janice Teigen in the previous round, lost her opening service game in the first set, but recovered and leveled at 3–3.
However, former world number two Badosa broke Dart again to take a 5-3 lead and held her serve to close out the set.
The pair exchanged breaks at the start of the second set, before Darts leveled at 1–1.
Badosa, who required two medical timeouts during the match as she appeared to be struggling with the heat, saved a match point at 5-3 in the deciding set and then broke Dart.
But the Spaniard, ranked 61st in the world, was drawing a blank in her next service game as Dart won it to love.
Dart said, “It was an incredible fight. I thought Paula started really strong. I was always behind and knew it was going to be an incredibly tough match.”
“I really needed to hang in there during the tough moments and wait for my chance. Luckily I was able to take my chance, and I’m very excited to get to the semi-finals.”