No. 16 seed Maja Chwalinska of Poland will face unseeded Sonay Kartal of Great Britain in Sunday’s final at the Wuhan Open in China.
Chwalinska moved closer to her maiden WTA Tour title with a 7-5, 6-1 win over seventh-seeded compatriot Iga Swiatek, while Kartal won a pair of tiebreakers to defeat Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko 7-6 (9), 7-6 (5) during Saturday’s semifinals at the WTA 1000 event.
It is the first time since the tournament’s inception that two players ranked outside the top 20 both reached the final. Chwalinska ranks No. 22 and Kartal, playing just her second tournament since a six-month injury layoff, is No. 170.
Chwalinska saved two set points trailing 5-3 in the first set before Swiatek took an injury timeout to address a leg injury. Chwalinska then swept 10 of the next 11 games to finish in 2 hours and 8 minutes.
Swiatek tallied 37 winners and 33 unforced errors, compared to 19 winners and just seven unforced errors for Chwalinska, this year’s French Open runner-up.
The left-handed Chwalinska is the first southpaw to reach a Grand Slam and a WTA 1000 final in the same year since Petra Kvitova in 2019.
Kartal is chasing her second career title after winning a WTA 250 event Monastir, Tunisia, in 2024. All five players she defeated this week were ranked in the top 50, and she has only lost one set.
“In every match, I’ve kind of been the underdog in this event,” Kartal said. “I think the only pressure is kind of the pressure that I’m putting on myself, regardless of how long I spent out, I still expect to offer a good performance and very proud of what I’ve managed to achieve this week.”
Kartal fought back from a 4-1 deficit in the first set to force the tiebreaker, where she survived two set points before winning on her third set point. Ostapenko built another 4-1 lead in the second set before faltering and bowing out in 2 hours and 12 minutes.
“Today was a dream come true,” Kartal said. “I’ve been shooting to get this far in one of these events for a very long time and to be able to do it this fast after so long out.”
–Field Level Media
