Britain’s Sonay Kartal and Poland’s Maja Chwalinska will face off in the final of the Wuhan Open WTA tennis tournament.
Earlier in the quarterfinals, Sonay Kartal, ranked 170th, played brilliantly and defeated Svitolina 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 in sets to secure an impressive victory.
Sonay Kartal had not played for the past six months due to a back injury. She has now won 6 of her last 8 matches. In the quarterfinals, she had also defeated top player Jasmine Paolini, and in the second round, Olympic champion Belinda Bencic.
Swiatek’s record: In another quarterfinal, former world No. 1 from Poland Iga Swiatek defeated Ann Li 6-4, 6-1 in straight sets to qualify for the semifinals. Swiatek has now set the record as the only female player to have qualified for the semifinals in 10 WTA 1000 tournaments. This was also the 25th time that Swiatek has qualified for the semifinals in a WTA 1000 event.
Caroline Wozniacki, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Simona Halep have already achieved this feat. She has qualified for the semifinals in Rome, Toronto, Cincinnati, and Wuhan. In the other quarterfinal, Poland’s young player Maja Salinska defeated Greece’s Maria Sakkari in three sets to qualify for the semifinals. Maja defeated Sakkari 6-0, 3-6, 7-5.
Sone Karthal-Salinska in the final round: In the semifinal held on Saturday, Sone Karthal faced Latvia’s former Grand Slam champion Jelena Ostapenko.
With a superb performance in this match, Kartal defeated Ostapenko 7-6, 7-6 in straight sets after a fierce battle to advance to the final. This is the first time Ostapenko has qualified for a WTA 1000 final.
This match lasted nearly 72 minutes. In the first set, she saved two set points and won in the tiebreak. In the second set as well, Kartal, who was trailing 1-4, saved three set points and took control. With this, she will also become Britain’s No. 1 player.

In the other semifinal, top player Poland’s Iga Swiatek faced fellow player Maja Salinska. After a tough battle, Salinska took the first set 7-5.
In the second set that followed, Swiatek could not match Salinska’s superb play. Salinska took that set 6-1.
In the opening set, Salinska, who was trailing, earned 2 break points. Swiatek was unable to play her usual game because of a foot injury. Salinska won 10 of the 11 games. The match lasted 2 hours.
