Harriet Dart rallies past Paula Badosa to reach Guangzhou semi-finals

Harriet Dart reached the second WTA Tour semi-final of her career by defeating fifth seed Paula Badosa at the Guangzhou Open in China. According to BBC Sport, the British qualifier recovered from a set down to win 3-6 6-2 6-4, completing the quarter-final in two hours and 15 minutes at Nansha International Tennis Centre.

Watch the highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rx9t4wcDt8

The victory continued a run in which Dart had already beaten second seed Janice Tjen in the previous round. The 30-year-old now has another win over a seeded opponent after overcoming Badosa, who is ranked 61st in the world and sits 54 places above her. Dart reached this stage after first coming through qualifying, rather than starting the tournament with a place in the main draw.

Badosa made the stronger start, breaking Dart in her opening service game. Dart recovered that break to bring the first set level at 3-3, but the Spaniard moved ahead again with another break for a 5-3 lead. Badosa then held serve to take the opening set, leaving Dart needing to win both remaining sets to advance to the last four.

The players traded breaks early in the second set before Dart took control and won it 6-2. BBC Sport reported that Badosa received two medical timeouts during the match and appeared to be struggling with the heat. Dart nevertheless had to negotiate another late reversal before completing the comeback, with Badosa saving a match point at 5-3 in the deciding set and breaking the Briton's serve.

Dart responded immediately in the next game, breaking Badosa to love to settle the match. In her post-match comments reported by the BBC, she described the contest as a difficult battle and credited her willingness to stay patient during the toughest passages. She said Badosa had started strongly and that she needed to wait for an opportunity before taking her chance.

Dart's only previous tour-level semi-final came at the Transylvania Open in Cluj-Napoca, where Karolina Pliskova beat her in straight sets. She will return to court on Saturday against either American Claire Liu or 16-year-old Chinese wildcard Sun Xinran. Her opponent had not been decided in the BBC report.