Chwalinska Beats Swiatek to Reach Wuhan Final

Maja Chwalinska of Poland beat Iga Swiatek 7⁠–⁠5, 6⁠–⁠1 in an all-Polish semifinal at the Wuhan Open in China. It is her first career win over a top-10 player.

Chwalinska broke serve first. Swiatek consolidated a break of her own to lead 5⁠–⁠3, then had two set points in the ninth game. Chwalinska saved both. Swiatek took a medical timeout for a leg injury after that game, and Chwalinska won 10 of the last 11 games to finish in 2 hours 8 minutes.

It was the first all-Polish semifinal at a women's tour event in the Open Era. Swiatek, the seventh seed and ranked ninth, had won their only previous meeting, at an ITF event in Stockholm in 2016, when both were 15. As juniors they reached the girls' doubles final at the 2017 Australian Open together.

Swiatek said the leg had troubled her all week. Her first match in Wuhan was against Magdalena Frech.

"From the beginning of the tournament, I kind of felt pain in my quad," she said. "I've been able to manage that day by day and we were already thinking of withdrawing after I played with Magda in the first round. ... But today was just too much, and that's unfortunate because I felt like we're playing great tennis and wanted to continue. Later on, I knew it's going to be tough to win, but I didn't want to honestly retire because wanted Maja to win it normally."

Swiatek is a former world No. 1 and a 12-time WTA 1000 champion. This was her 25th semifinal at that level and her first in Wuhan.

"It was such a physical match, especially the first set," Chwalinska said. "She had set points, so it was very close to lose this one. I feel like what I did well is I really fought for every single ball."

Chwalinska, the 16th seed, is 25 and ranked 22nd. Her only previous match against a top-10 player was her loss to Mirra Andreeva in the French Open final this season, which she reached as a qualifier. Wuhan is her fourth main draw at a WTA 1000 event, and before this week she had never gone past the round of 32 at one. In Wuhan she beat Mayar Sherif, Marie Bouzkova, Iva Jovic, Maria Sakkari and Swiatek.

She has won 17 tour-level matches this year, 11 of them on hard courts. Before this season she had four tour-level wins. She reached the semifinals in Singapore last month.

"I'm just a human being and my brain works, I mean, too much and I have too many thoughts in my head," she said. "And so, of course, I get thoughts like maybe it's just one tournament. I don't want to have just one tournament."

Chwalinska plays Sonay Kartal of Britain for the title, in their first meeting. The final is set for no earlier than 6:30 PM in Wuhan (6:30 AM ET) on October 18. It is the first Wuhan final since the tournament began in 2014 between two players ranked outside the top 20. Neither has won a WTA 1000 title. Chwalinska has not won a title at tour level, and Kartal has won one, in Monastir in 2024.

The champion receives $665,000 and 1,000 ranking points, and the runner-up $385,001 and 650 points. The WTA projects Chwalinska to rise into the top 15 whatever the result.

"I have seen a few of her matches," Chwalinska said of Kartal. "She plays with a lot of variety as well so I think it could be a fun one. Definitely very challenging. Hopefully, I will recover and we'll have a great show."