Harriet Dart beat Sun Xinran in three sets in Guangzhou to reach her first WTA singles final. The Briton recovered from losing the opening set and won the decider without dropping a game. She will face fourth seed Lilli Tagger on Sunday, with a first singles title and a return to the top 100 at stake.
Harriet Dart reached her first WTA singles final in Guangzhou by beating Sun Xinran 5-7, 7-6(1), 6-0. The 30-year-old Briton lost the opening set but won the second-set tiebreak before taking every game in the decider. The match lasted 145 minutes. Sun, a 16-year-old home player, had won the US Open junior singles title before this run in front of her home crowd.[1], [2]
Dart fell 3-0 behind in the first set and later had the chance to serve it out at 5-4. Double faults helped Sun recover, and the home player took the set 7-5. Dart twice broke serve in the second set, only to lose the advantage immediately. She eventually won seven of the eight points in the tiebreak. Sun received a medical timeout and struggled physically as Dart completed the match.[1]
The world number 115 will play fourth seed Lilli Tagger in Sunday’s final. A title would also return Dart to the top 100, according to the LTA. The appearance comes 11 years after her WTA main-draw debut at Eastbourne in 2015. Her previous singles semi-final at this level came at the 2024 Transylvania Open. She has already won doubles titles in Nottingham and Prague this season with Maia Lumsden.[1]
