Britain's Harriet Dart reached the second WTA Tour semi-final of her career with a 3-6 6-2 6-4 victory over fifth seed Paula Badosa at the Guangzhou Open in China. The 30-year-old, ranked 115th in the world, overcame the Spanish 61st-ranked player in two hours and 15 minutes at the Nansha International Tennis Centre.
Dart's only previous tour-level semi-final appearance came at the 2023 Transylvania Open, where she lost to Karolina Pliskova. She will face 16-year-old Chinese wildcard Sun Xinran in the last four on Saturday.
After coming through qualifying and upsetting second seed Janice Tjen in the previous round, Dart lost her opening service game but broke back to level at 3-3 in the first set. Badosa broke again to take the set, but Dart seized control in the second, breaking twice to force a decider. Badosa saved a match point at 5-3 in the third set and broke back, but appeared to struggle with the heat, taking two medical timeouts. Dart then held to love to seal the win.
"It's been a very long time since I've been in the business end of the tournament so I am really excited for that," Dart said. "Tennis is so stressful, so to have the opportunity to compete again on Saturday is a great opportunity for me."
The run from qualifying to the semi-finals puts Dart on the cusp of re-entering the top 100, which would grant her direct entry into the Australian Open main draw in January. Working with former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli has been a key factor in Dart's resurgence; she has won 17 of her last 22 tour-level hard-court matches since Wimbledon, posting a career-best 21-32 record this season.
