Britain's Sonay Kartal has won her first match back on the WTA Tour at the China Open, beating Spain's Andrea Lazaro Garcia 6-2 6-3. The 24-year-old was sidelined for almost six months after sustaining a lower back injury at Indian Wells in March.
Kartal, ranked world number 129, made her initial return to tennis at the Billie Jean King Cup on 22 September, where she lost to Czech world number 26 Marie Bouzkova. In Beijing, she broke Lazaro Garcia's serve five times and landed 69% of her first serves.
Her next opponent will be Chinese 31st seed Wang Xinyu as she aims to improve her world ranking. Elsewhere, British number one Arthur Fery lost to Jaime Faria in the Japan Open, and Denmark's Holger Rune was defeated by Kyrian Jacquet in his first ATP Tour appearance in nearly a year.