Iga Świątek and Maja Chwalińska set up all-Polish semifinal in Wuhan
Seventh seed Iga Świątek beat Ann Li 6:4, 6:1 in the quarterfinals, setting up a semifinal against Maja Chwalińska. Never before have two Polish players reached the same WTA 1000 semifinal, and the other semifinal pits Jelena Ostapenko against Sonay Kartal.
Świątek through to the semifinal
Seventh seed Iga Świątek beat American Ann Li 6:4, 6:1 in the quarterfinals of the WTA 1000 tournament in Wuhan, China. Maja Chwalińska had already reached the semifinal before Świątek's win, so the two Polish players will meet in the last four. Chwalińska is ranked 16th and Świątek 7th, according to Polsat Sport. The match is due to start on Saturday, 17 October, at about 13:00 Polish time.
A first for Polish players
No two Polish players had ever reached the WTA 1000 semifinal at the same time, a tier of tournament introduced in 2009. Świątek and Chwalińska are the same age and played together on the junior national team. Their only previous official meeting was an ITF event in Stockholm on 3 November 2016, which Świątek won 6:2, 6:3. Saturday's match will be their first meeting on the WTA tour. Magdalena Fręch lost to Świątek in the second round, and Magda Linette was eliminated in qualifying.
The second semifinal
Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, coached by Piotr Sierzputowski, beat 11th seed Diana Sznajder of Russia 7:6 (8-6), 6:1. Sonay Kartal of Britain, a 24-year-old ranked 170th in the world, produced the bigger upset. She beat fifth seed Elina Switolina of Ukraine 6:2, 2:6, 6:4 after more than two hours of play. Ostapenko and Kartal will meet in the other semifinal.
