Maja Chwalinska spent the first set of the Wuhan Open final scrambling from corner to corner while Sonay Kartal hit through her from the baseline. Two hours and 43 minutes after the first ball, the Pole had the trophy, beating Kartal 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 on Sunday for the first tour-level title of her career.
Kartal needed 45 minutes and three breaks of serve to take the opening set, and she led 2-0 in the second. Chwalinska, the 16th seed, was a set and a break down. She turned the match with the tennis that had beaten Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-1 in the semifinals: longer rallies, every ball run down, and changes of pace with her left-handed touch. Kartal saved 10 of the 13 break points she faced in that set, but Chwalinska broke for 4-3 and closed it out after 71 minutes.
“I feel like my energy level was very low at the beginning, but also Sonay played amazing,” Chwalinska said. “Gradually I started to play much better and much more aggressive. Also, the depth on my shots improved.”
Kartal had little left in the decider. Chwalinska broke her twice and won on her third championship point. On a Dongfeng Voyah center court where neither player served an ace, Kartal finished with more winners, 32 to 23, and more unforced errors, 36 to 27. “It was a very physical battle and I think I had my chances and I think that’s maybe where the rust of six months off comes in,” Kartal said.
What it means. Chwalinska is the fourth player to make a WTA 1000 event her first tour-level title, after Naomi Osaka at Indian Wells in 2018, Bianca Andreescu at Indian Wells in 2019 and Victoria Mboko in Montreal in 2025. She started the year ranked 146th and reached the Roland Garros final as a qualifier in June. Wuhan is worth 1,000 ranking points and $665,000, and it lifts her to a career-high No. 11 in the rankings released on Monday. Her route to the title went through 10th seed Iva Jovic, Maria Sakkari and Swiatek.
She said the months after Paris had been hard. “But it feels special, because after French Open, it was obviously amazing, but then I had some tough moments. I feel like people also were very rough towards me. And it took a toll on me as well,” she said. “I’m just a human. But I kept working really hard and I’m just very grateful that my work paid off.”
Kartal’s week. Kartal, who missed more than six months this season with a stress fracture in her back, came into Wuhan ranked 170th and leaves it back inside the top 50. She beat Belinda Bencic, Jasmine Paolini, Elina Svitolina and Jelena Ostapenko on the way to her first WTA 1000 final, as our semifinal report set out. It was Chwalinska’s first at the level too. “Obviously not the result I wanted and it’s going to sting for a little while but I think for me the positives this week outweigh that result today,” Kartal said.
The race for Indian Wells. Swiatek finished her semifinal with a bandaged left thigh, and the defeat confirmed Svitolina as the seventh qualifier for the WTA Finals. One place is left. Karolina Muchova holds it, with Swiatek and Marta Kostyuk chasing her through Ningbo and Tokyo over the next two weeks.
What’s next. Chwalinska goes straight to the Ningbo Open, where she opens against Polish qualifier Katarzyna Kawa in the quarter of top seed Elena Rybakina. For the history of the event she has just won, see our Wuhan Open guide, and for her career so far, our Maja Chwalinska profile.
