Sonay Kartal beat Jelena Ostapenko 7-6 and 7-6 in the semi-finals, a match that lasted 2 hours and 12 minutes. Ostapenko, a Latvian ranked 34th, is a former French Open champion and was one of the tournament favourites. Kartal, a 24-year-old from Britain, started the week ranked 170th in the world. Earlier in the Wuhan draw she had beaten Belinda Bencic, Jasmine Paolini and Elina Svitolina. She recovered from a double break in the opening set and won the first tie-break 11-9 after saving two set points. In the second set she saved two more set points before forcing a second tie-break, which she also won to complete the win.
Kartal assessed the match after it ended.
“That was probably one of the toughest matches I've played in.”
Kartal reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2025, but then sustained a back stress fracture that kept her out of action for six months. Her return came at the China Open in early October, where she won two matches. Her semi-final win means she is guaranteed to rise into the world top 50 in the rankings for the week of 19 October. That ranking would overtake Katie Boulter and make Kartal the British No 1. Kartal said the match was among the best of her career.
“Mentally I think this is one of the best performances I've had in my career.”
Maja Chwalińska beat compatriot Iga Świątek 7-5, 6-1 in 2 hours and 8 minutes in the other semi-final, which was an all-Polish match. Świątek was the seventh seed and the tournament favourite, ranked ninth in the world. Chwalińska, 25, was seeded 16th and ranked 22nd before the event. She took the first set 7-5 and then won the second 6-1. It is her second career final, after the one she lost at Roland-Garros in 2026, and she has three WTA 125 titles, including one at Oeiras in 2026. Chwalińska and Kartal have never met before, so the final will be their first meeting.
The final is scheduled for Sunday, 18 October, on hard courts at a WTA 1000 event with prize money of $4,088,211. Both finalists reached the last match by beating a tournament favourite in the semi-finals. Kartal's place in the final makes her the lowest-ranked player to reach a WTA 1000 final since the format began in 2009. A win would move Chwalińska closer to the top 10. The chart below shows the pre-tournament world rankings of the four semi-finalists.
Data from the article text
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Britain's Sonay Kartal, ranked 170th at the start of the week, beat Jelena Ostapenko, and Poland's Maja Chwalińska, ranked 22nd, beat Iga Świątek to set up the final.
AI text based on reports by www.polsatsport.pl, La Libre.be, ANSA.it and other publishers. Published .