Wuhan 2026: Chwalinska comes back to beat Kartal for first title 1000

Maja Chwalinska has won the 2026 Wuhan Open. In Sunday's final she beat Sonay Kartal 2-6 6-4 6-2, coming back after an uphill first set. It is the Pole's first title on the main tour, and it comes straight away at WTA 1000 level.

The win is worth 1,000 points and $665,000 in prize money, according to the WTA. In the site's live ranking Chwalinska's total rises to 3,043 points. Kartal, the runner-up, takes 650 points and $385,001: in the live ranking she is No. 49 with 1,097 points.

The start belonged to the Briton. Kartal won the first set 6-2 and went a break up in the second, as reported by Sky Sports and Reuters. It looked like the final chapter of a fairy-tale week that began with her ranked No. 170 in the world.

Chwalinska turned the match around right at that moment. She got the break back and took the second set 6-4, then pulled away in the third to win it 6-2. According to Reuters, Kartal had broken her in four of her first five service games; from then on the Pole dropped serve only once and broke her opponent five times, also using a defensive lob that disrupted the Briton's rhythm.

It was a familiar script. In the semi-final Chwalinska had beaten Iga Swiatek 7-5 6-1 in the all-Polish clash, saving two set points at 3-5 in the first set. It was her first win over a Top 10 player, according to the WTA.

"I really fought for every single ball," she said after that match, in comments reported by the WTA. And on the final that awaited her: "And this one feels very special for sure."

Chwalinska's run in Wuhan built steadily. In the second round she beat Mayar Sherif 6-3 6-2, in the third Marie Bouzkova 1-6 6-1 6-1 and in the round of 16 Iva Jovic 6-4 6-1. The quarter-final took a battle: Maria Sakkari beaten 6-0 3-6 7-5.

Her leap this season is striking. The site records just eight main-tour matches for her between 2022 and 2025, with four wins. In 2026, according to the WTA, she had already won 17 before the final, eleven of them on hard courts, and in June she reached the Roland Garros final. In Wuhan she turned that run into a trophy. The comparison with last year says it all: in 2025, according to the site, she finished the season on the main tour with one win and two defeats. Kartal, in the same year, put together 15 wins and 14 defeats.

Kartal leaves beaten but after the best week of her career. According to the WTA, the Briton had been out for six months with a back injury and her ranking had dropped from No. 54 to No. 170. She returned in September, having chosen not to rush.

"I definitely did not think that I would find this level this fast," she said during the tournament, as reported by the WTA. In Beijing she had reached the third round; in Wuhan she did much more.

Her draw was a climb. In the second round she beat Anhelina Kalinina 7-5 6-3, in the third Belinda Bencic 6-0 7-5. In the round of 16 she swept aside Jasmine Paolini 6-2 6-0, the 15th seed.

In the quarter-finals Kartal beat Elina Svitolina 6-2 2-6 6-4, her first win in three meetings with the Ukrainian. In the semi-final she overcame Jelena Ostapenko 7-6(9) 7-6(5), saving six set points according to the WTA.

According to the WTA, since 1990 she is only the second British woman to reach a final at this level, after Johanna Konta. It was her second final on the main tour: she won the first, in Monastir in 2024, and the site records it among that season's results.

For Paolini the week also hurts in the rankings. In 2025 she reached the semi-finals in Wuhan and had 390 points to defend, the same as Aryna Sabalenka. Going out in the round of 16, she keeps only part of them.

The tournament has a new champion for the third year running. In 2025 Coco Gauff won it, 6-4 7-5 in the final against Jessica Pegula. In 2024 it was Sabalenka's turn, 6-3 5-7 6-3 against Qinwen Zheng. Gauff was defending 1,000 points, Pegula 650.

It was a hard-fought tournament, if shorter than others. There were 55 matches, with 19 tie-breaks, 22 matches decided in a final set and five sets finished 6-0. The longest was Katie Volynets against Kimberly Birrell, 6-7(1) 7-6(3) 6-3 over 35 games.

Ukraine was the best-represented nation, with six players in the draw. Svitolina went as far as the quarter-finals, where she was stopped by Kartal, the surprise nobody had predicted at the start of the week.

It was the first meeting between Chwalinska and Kartal. On the eve of the final the Pole said she had watched a few of her matches and described her as a player with a lot of variety. In the first set the Briton lived up to that description, then the match passed into Chwalinska's hands.

The Asian swing is down to its last events. From Monday the tour continues with the WTA 500 in Ningbo and the WTA 250 in Osaka. For Chwalinska comes her first week as a champion; for Kartal, confirmation that her return from injury is already complete.