WUHAN, China (AP) — Fifth-seeded Elina Svitolina is out of the Wuhan Open after losing 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 to resurgent British player Sonay Kartal in the quarterfinals Friday.
The No. 170-ranked old Kartal, who missed more than six months with a stress fracture in her back, has won six of her eight matches since returning to the elite tour. She beat two-time Grand Slam finalist Jasmine Paolini to reach the quarterfinals in Wuhan after defeating ninth-seeded Belinda Bencic, the Tokyo Olympics gold medalist, in the second round.
Kartal, who broke Svitolina's serve in the last game to clinch the match, reached a career-high No. 44 ranking in July of last year. Svitolina lost in the quarterfinals at the China Open last week to eventual champion Zheng Qinwen.
Kartal advanced to a semifinal against 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, who beat 11th-seeded Diana Shnaider 7-6 (6), 6-1.
Seventh-seeded Iga Swiatek was scheduled to play a quarterfinal later Friday against American Ann Li, who upset top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka in the second round.
The winner of that match will face either Maria Sakkari or Maja Chwalinska in the semifinals.
See AP’s full tennis coverage here
Elina Svitolina, of Ukraine, leaves the court after losing against Zheng Qinwen, of China, during the quarterfinals of the women's singles match at the China Open tennis tournament in Beijing, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani authorities ordered inspections of all private schools in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after a school roof collapsed and killed 34 children and a teacher, as some victims’ relatives said the structure previously was reported to be weak.
The provincial government announced an investigation into the cause of Thursday’s collapse at Al-Khair school as victims’ families demanded justice. At least one family member said he had warned the school owner about leaks.
Police on Thursday arrested the school’s owner, Mohammad Khan. Peshawar Police Chief Saeed Ahmed said the building was structurally weak and Khan told officers that recent rains had weakened one of the roofs.
The government order, which was seen by The Associated Press, directs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s education department to establish district committees to inspect private school buildings throughout the province and submit findings and recommendations within three days.
The inspections must cover premises that are owned as well as those that are rented. Specific areas to checks in the buildings include roofs, ceilings, walls, columns, beams, foundations and staircases. Districts must require urgent technical assessment and classify school buildings as safe, in need of repairs or improvements, or potentially unsafe, the order says.
Emergency crews arrived within five minutes of being alerted and everyone trapped beneath the rubble was recovered by the time the operation ended Thursday. Rescuers pulled at least 40 children alive from the debris, said Bilal Faizi, a spokesperson for emergency services in Peshawar.
The collapsed roof was a traditional structure made of mud and bricks and some of the children trapped beneath died of suffocation, Faizi said.
Speaking from a hospital bed, injured teacher Mahwish Zaman said the collapse happened so suddenly that no one had time to escape.
Zaman described being in her classroom when she heard a loud crash from the floor above. Before she could warn her students to run to safety, the ceiling fell in. She was unconscious when she was taken to the hospital and later learned many of her students had died.
Residents visited victims’ families, many of whom lived in Peshawar’s Dir Colony neighborhood, where the school is located.
Mohammad Zaman, whose two nephews died in the collapse, said he and other relatives had complained to the school's owner about rainwater repeatedly seeping into classrooms. Zaman said he warned that the building’s condition could lead to a tragedy.
Zaman, 36, said through tears that his nephew Abdul, 9, was in second grade, while Abuzar, 10, was in third grade. Abuzar’s sister, Samiya, a nursery student at the school, survived because she had gone outside to buy sweets.
Zakir Ullah lost both sons, Abu Bakr and Mohammad, who were in the same classroom. His daughter was in a different class and ran home after the collapse to tell the family the school had fallen. They rushed back with her and found the boys’ classroom buried under rubble, he said.
Nothing was visible beneath the debris, said Ullah, who described the building as weak and demanded punishment for any officials who authorized its use as a school.
“How could I have known this would take both my sons away from me,” he said.
Ahmed reported from Islamabad.
Mourners attend funeral prayers of children, who were died in a roof collapse of a private school, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Muhammad Zubair)
Rescue workers take a break while searching through the rubble at the site of a roof collapse at a private school, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Muhammad Zubair)
A Pakistani shows the picture of his relative boy, who was died in a roof collapse of a private school, prior to a funeral prayer, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Muhammad Zubair)
A rescue worker stand beside shoes and a school bag of victim children at the the site of a roof collapse of a private school, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Pakistan, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Muhammad Zubair)
