Preview: Cincinnati Open: Sonay Kartal vs. Caroline Garcia - prediction, form

One of the standout first-round matches in the Cincinnati Open women's singles tournament, British rising star Sonay Kartal takes on former world number four Caroline Garcia on Thursday afternoon.

Both competitors are making their first WTA Tour appearances since respective Grand Slam defeats, while Garcia is continuing her retirement tour ahead of her imminent exit from the game.

Match preview

The hottest new kid on the British tennis block, 23-year-old Kartal took SW19 by storm to reach her first-ever Grand Slam fourth round at Wimbledon earlier this summer, doing so with perennial placidity and little more than a wry smile after each statement win.

Former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, Viktoriya Tomova and Diane Parry all fell to Kartal's superiority on the grass courts, but even after a well-publicised technological error went her way, the Brit was beaten by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in round four.

Nevertheless, Kartal's new major zenith propelled her to a career-high ranking of world number 44, and the 5ft 4in Briton - who makes up for what she lacks in height with tremendous feats of power - is now a respectable 19-15 for the season.

A campaign of firsts for the Brighton-born British number three continues with a maiden appearance at the Cincinnati Open main draw, just five months after her WTA 1000 debut at the Indian Wells Masters, where she coincidentally also made the last 16.

However, Kartal then failed to progress through qualifying in Miami - her most recent appearance on hard courts - before second-round exits at both the Madrid Open and Italian Open.

While Kartal prepares for her Cincinnati Open main-draw baptism, French veteran Garcia already has nine tournament appearances under her belt, one of which ended in glory as recently as 2022.

By defeating Petra Kvitova in straight sets three years ago, the former world number four collected her third and most recent WTA 1000 title, and perhaps her penultimate; she then triumphed in that year's WTA Finals but has not taken home a top-level crown since.

One more - either at Cincinnati or another of her unspecified tournaments - would be the perfect send-off to a captivating career, as the Frenchwoman announced earlier this year that the 2025 season would be her last as a professional.

Garcia has not taken to the court since her French Open farewell, which ended prematurely in a 4-6 4-6 loss to the USA's Bernarda Pera, her seventh defeat from 10 singles matches in the current campaign.

The 2022 Cincinnati Open was also something of an outlier for Garcia, who has failed to progress past the third round in any of her other eight main-draw appearances, but a clash with Karolina Muchova will be her reward if she can best Kartal in their first - and probably last - meeting.

We say: Kartal to win in two sets

Power meets power in Thursday's must-watch battle, where unfortunately for Garcia, her recent lack of match practice may prove decisive.

Twelve of Kartal's 14 ITF Circuit title wins - and her only WTA Tour crown - have come on hard courts, and the Briton should bring Garcia's Cincinnati chapter to a permanent close.