WUHAN: Polish 16th seed Maja Chwalinska overcame an injured Iga Swiatek to reach the first WTA 1000 final of her career, handing her childhood friend and compatriot a 7-5, 6-1 defeat at the Wuhan Open on Saturday.

Chwalinska will next face world number 170 Sonay Kartal, who became the lowest-ranked player to reach a WTA 1000 final with a gritty 7-6(11/9), 7-6(7-5) win over Jelena Ostapenko.

Swiatek, who needed to win the title in Wuhan to increase her slim chances of qualifying for the year-end WTA Finals, battled a left thigh injury during the match, which limited her movement against her crafty left-handed opponent.

Meanwhile, Chwalinska didwell to manage the mental challenges of the occasion as she hit yet another new milestone in a breakthrough season that saw her make a surprise run to the French Open final, as a qualifier, back in June.

`Obviously Iga wasn`t 100 per cent today, so I wish her all the best, of course,` said the 25-year-old Pole, who is contesting just her fourth WTA 1000 main draw.

`It`s always tough to play against a fellow Polish player.

She`s a great champion, a living legend, she won everything. So it was a great honour for me to share the court with her today.

`I think I still don`t really realise what`s going on and the fact that I won against heris actually crazy for me.

The momentum swung back and forth in the opening frame before Swiatek attempted to serve for a oneset lead at 5-3.

The seventh seed could not close though, despite holding two set points, and soon found herself trailing Chwalinska 5-6.

Ahead of game 12, Swiatek took a medical timeout and was in pain and in tears while getting her left thigh attended to.

Chwalinska then warded off break points to scoop up the 80-minute first set.

In a bizarre opening game of the second set, a tearful Swiatek had an animated discussion with her strength and conditioning coach Maciej Ryszczuk on the sidelines,while facing two break points.

She was handed a time violation warning as a result and went on to drop a fifth consecutive game.

The six-time Grand Slam champion could not do much else to stop Chwalinska, who wrapped up the victory in two hours and eight minutes to set up a final showdown with Kartal.

Kartal, 24, is playing just her second tour event since returning from a six-month injury layoff, having suffered a spinal stress fracture that sidelined her from March to September.

In a close affair with 2017 French Open champion Ostapenko, Kartal showed tremendous composure and dug herself out of multipleholes to become the first British finalist in Wuhan Open history.

`Wow, that was probably one of the toughest matches I`ve ever played,` said the Briton, who survived 50 winners coming off Ostapenko`s racquet to reach the biggest final of her career.

`I knew exactly how she was going to play. At times she`s unplayable and sometimes you just have to ride that wave.

`Mentally I think this is one of the best performances I`ve had in my career. I`m very proud of that one.

After dismissing three consecutive seeds in her previous rounds, including No.6 Elina Svitolina and No.9 Belinda Bencic, Kartal made the 35th-ranked Ostapenko her latest victim to reach her secondcareer tour-level final, and first at the WTA 1000 level.-AFP