Maja Chwalińska wins her first WTA title in Wuhan

Poland's Maja Chwalińska won the Wuhan Open in China on Sunday, October 18. She beat Britain's Sonay Kartal 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 in a final that lasted 2 hours and 43 minutes. It was the first title of her career, and it came at a WTA 1000 event, the level just below the Grand Slams.

Kartal controlled the first set with strong forehands and also led by a set and a break. Chwalińska then made the rallies longer and broke serve to lead 4-3 in the second set. She took that set and won the last four games of the match. Kartal hit more winners, 32 to 23, but also made more unforced errors, 36 to 27, the Associated Press reported.

Chwalińska, the 16th seed, beat fellow Pole Iga Świątek in the semi-finals. She began the year ranked 146th, and in June she reached the French Open final as a qualifier. The Wuhan title gives her 1,000 ranking points and $665,000 in prize money, according to AP. She is expected to rise to a career-high 11th place. She is only the fourth player to win a first tour title at a WTA 1000 event, after Naomi Osaka, Bianca Andreescu and Victoria Mboko.

Kartal, 24, was unseeded and ranked 170th. That made her the lowest-ranked WTA 1000 finalist since the category was created in 2009. She had come back only weeks earlier after more than six months out with a stress fracture in her back. She beat Jelena Ostapenko in the semi-finals. She is expected to become the British number one, but reports differ on her new ranking: AP says she will enter the top 40, Reuters says the top 50.

After the final, Kartal called the match "one heck of a battle", Reuters reported. Chwalińska thanked her coaches and said she was grateful to the people around her.