Maja Chwalinska Rallies Past Kartal for Wuhan Title

Maja Chwalinska was a set and a break down, and she still walked off with the Wuhan trophy. The 16th seed from Poland beat Sonay Kartal 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 on Sunday to win the Wuhan Open, the first title of her career and a WTA 1000 crown at that.

She closed it by winning the final five games, saving three break points while serving for the match, and finally converted her third championship point when Kartal sent a forehand long. The whole thing took 2 hours and 43 minutes.

How Chwalinska turned the Wuhan final around

Kartal owned the first set. The Brit was steady from the baseline, picked her moments to step in, and took it 6-2. When she broke for a 2-0 lead in the second, it looked like the comeback story of the week was about to get its ending.

Instead, Chwalinska dug in. Kartal saved four break points in her next service game before Chwalinska cashed in on the fifth to get back on serve. The second set ran 71 minutes and swung at 4-all before the Pole forced a decider. She broke for 3-2 in the third, and from there it was down-the-line winners and her signature drop shot and lob combo.

"I feel like my energy level was very low at the beginning," Chwalinska said, per the WTA. "What I'm proud of is the fighting spirit."

She was honest about the months since her surprise run to the Roland Garros final, too. "After the French Open it was obviously amazing, but then I had some tough moments," she said. "I'm just a human. So I need to admit it was very tough for me, but I kept working really hard."

A first title with a lot of history attached

Chwalinska is only the fourth player since the format began in 2009 to make a WTA 1000 her first career title, joining Naomi Osaka (Indian Wells 2018), Bianca Andreescu (Indian Wells 2019) and Victoria Mboko (Montreal 2025).

She is also the first left-hander to win a WTA 1000 since Petra Kvitova in Miami in 2023, and only the third Polish woman to win one, after Agnieszka Radwanska and Iga Swiatek. She went through Swiatek in the semifinals to get here.

The title lifts her to a projected career-high No. 11 after she started the week at No. 22. She said she began the season ranked around 140 with a goal of cracking the top 100.

Kartal still wins the week

Kartal was playing just her third event back from a six-month absence with a back injury, ranked No. 170 and entered on a protected ranking. Along the way she took out Belinda Bencic, Jasmine Paolini, Elina Svitolina and Jelena Ostapenko.

BBC Sport reports she climbs to No. 50 on Monday and becomes the British No. 1 for the first time. "It's not the result we wanted today, but those three people in my box are why I'm here, healthy and back to fitness," Kartal said.

Chwalinska is knocking on the top 10 with a trophy to prove Paris was no fluke, and Kartal is back as Britain's best. Women's tennis just got two more names worth staying up for.