Maja Chwalinska beat an injured Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-1 in an all-Polish Wuhan Open semi-final, and Britain’s Sonay Kartal edged Jelena Ostapenko 7-6(9), 7-6(5) in two tie-breaks. Chwalinska and Kartal will meet in Sunday’s final, each chasing a first WTA 1000 title.
Wuhan, China: Iga Swiatek arrived at the Wuhan Open semi-finals as a six-time Grand Slam champion and left them with her left thigh bandaged and her tournament over. The final she was expected to reach will instead feature two players who have never played for a WTA 1000 title.
Swiatek leads, then the leg gives way
Chwalinska broke first, Swiatek broke back, and the six-time major champion moved to 5-3 with two set points in hand. She could not convert either. Chwalinska saved both in the ninth game, levelled at 5-5 and moved ahead 6-5, and it was there that Swiatek called for a medical timeout.
She returned with the leg strapped, but the movement that defines her game was gone. She struggled to push off and to chase down returns. Chwalinska won ten of the next 11 games, taking the first set 7-5 and the second 6-1 in two hours and eight minutes.
Swiatek later said she had felt pain in her quad from the start of the tournament and had considered withdrawing after her first match. She played on because she did not want to retire, and she wanted Chwalinska to win the match properly. Her physio, Maciej Ryszczuk, said on social media that he had urged her three times to stop because of the risk to her health.
Chwalinska’s breakthrough season
The two Poles have known each other since they were ten and were once junior doubles partners. This was their first meeting in a decade, and only their second overall; Swiatek won the first at an ITF event in Stockholm in 2016.
For Chwalinska it was a first career win over a top-10 opponent and a first WTA 1000 final, her second tour-level final after reaching the French Open final earlier this year. She has won 17 tour-level matches in 2026, 11 of them on hard courts. “It was such a physical match, especially the first set,” she said afterwards.
Kartal survives a double tie-break
The second semi-final was decided by nerve rather than power. Ostapenko, the former French Open champion, led 4-1 in both sets and let both advantages slip. She made 41 unforced errors, including two straight double faults while serving for the first set, and Kartal won the tie-breaks 11-9 and 7-5 to prevail 7-6(9), 7-6(5).
Kartal’s run to the final has been a recovery story. She returned to the tour in September after roughly six months out with a back injury, and in Wuhan she beat Belinda Bencic, Jasmine Paolini and Elina Svitolina before overcoming Ostapenko. The win makes her a first-time WTA 1000 finalist.
A final nobody predicted
Wuhan lost its biggest names early. Zheng Qinwen and Mirra Andreeva withdrew a day after their China Open final, and top seeds Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula were also out before the quarter-finals. Into that space stepped two players who had never before reached a WTA 1000 final.
Chwalinska and Kartal meet on Sunday for the first time. “I’m expecting another tough battle as I have with every match,” Kartal said.
Result: Maja Chwalinska (POL) bt Iga Swiatek (POL) 7-5, 6-1; Sonay Kartal (GBR) bt Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) 7-6(9), 7-6(5)
Event: Dongfeng Voyah Wuhan Open (WTA 1000), semi-finals, Saturday 17 October 2026
Next: Final on Sunday 18 October, Chwalinska v Kartal
