Poland's Maja Chwalinska and Britain's Sonaj Kartal will compete for the title of the prestigious UTA 1000 women's tennis tournament on hard courts in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The two tennis players made an impressive raid to the final clash, overcoming serious rivals in the semifinals.
Roland Garros finalist and 16th seed Maja Chwalinska delivered the sensation of the day after prevailing over her compatriot and seventh seed Iga Swiontek 7:5, 6:1. The match lasted two hours and five minutes. The first set offered great drama after Hvalinska led 3:2, but Swiontek made a turnaround to 5:3. At this point, the 25-year-old Hvalinska demonstrated excellent mentality, winning the next four consecutive games and closing the set at 7:5. In the second set, Khvalinska dominated completely, taking advantage of her opponent's health problems with a leg injury to seal the final 6:1.
This is the first final at the WTA 1000 level in Khvalinska's career, while the defeat seriously reduced Swiontek's chances of qualifying for the final tournament of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA Finals) at the end of the year.
In the other semi-final clash, the dream comeback and strong form of the Briton Sonaj Kartal continued with a difficult but fully deserved victory over the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko. In an extremely contested match that lasted two hours and 15 minutes, Kartal emerged victorious after two dramatic tiebreaks — 7:6(9), 7:6(5).
The grand final between Maya Khvalinska and Sonay Kartal will be played on Sunday.