Tennis · Wuhan
Chwalińska meets Sherif in Wuhan, seeking a second-round place after two straight losses
Maja Chwalińska, ranked 22nd by the WTA, faces Sherif, ranked 52nd, in Wuhan singles. The winner meets Marie Bouzkova, ranked 28th, in the next round, while Chwalińska and Nikola Bartunkova also play doubles.
In brief
Chwalińska, ranked 22nd, is playing Sherif, ranked 52nd, in Wuhan. The winner faces Marie Bouzkova, ranked 28th, in the next round. This is the third professional meeting between the two players.
Chwalińska and Nikola Bartunkova face seventh-seeded Elise Mertens and Diana Sznajder in the first round of doubles, with Polsat Sport covering the match live.
Chwalińska lost 3:6, 1:6 to Dajana Jastremska at the China Open in Beijing. She has won only one match at WTA 1000 and Grand Slam tournaments since her French Open final run.
Singles match in Wuhan
Maja Chwalińska, ranked 22nd by the WTA, is playing Sherif, ranked 52nd, in singles at the WTA 1000 tournament in Wuhan, China. A TVN24 live blog published on 13 October carried the match as in progress and noted that its text was still being updated, so no result is available in these sources. The winner of the match will face Marie Bouzkova, ranked 28th, in the next round.
Third meeting with Sherif
This is the third professional meeting between the two players. Sherif, who is Egyptian, beat Chwalińska at Paris in 2021, the year of the Paris tournament in which Chwalińska lost. At a challenger event in Florianopolis at the end of 2024, Chwalińska won in three sets. Chwalińska arrived in Wuhan after two consecutive defeats, and the singles match is her first step in the tournament.
Doubles also on the schedule
Chwalińska is also competing in doubles, partnering Nikola Bartunkova. Their first-round opponents are seventh-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium and Diana Sznajder. Polsat Sport published its live coverage of that doubles match on 12 October. Bartunkova had reached the semifinal of the WTA 1000 event in Beijing, beating Aryna Sabalenka, the WTA's runner-up in the rankings, along the way.
Form before Wuhan
Chwalińska reached the semifinal of the WTA 500 event in Singapore, where Leylah Fernandez beat her, which raised hopes among her supporters. At the China Open in Beijing, she lost her first match to Dajana Jastremska, 3:6, 1:6. Since her run to the French Open final, Chwalińska has won only one match at WTA 1000 and Grand Slam tournaments. Her recent results have been uneven, and the tournaments she is now entering are new to her.
Expectations from the studio
On the Studio Sport programme, host Dawid Góra asked whether viewers can expect wins from Chwalińska at events such as Beijing or Wuhan. Marek Funjan answered that expecting her to win tournaments at the 1000 level would be at least absurd.
Furjan said he expects her to stay in the top 50 or 60 of the ranking, with a range of 30 to 40 possible, and called her Wuhan result hard to predict because surface speed and conditions matter. He compared her game with that of Iga Świątek, saying Chwalińska depends more on her opponents.
“Maja has less speed, she does not dominate on the court, she can make your life miserable, and she can make you want to grab your bag and head for the locker room.”
Furjan and Adam Romer said Chwalińska is gathering valuable experience and learning new venues. Furjan expects her results over the coming months to rise and fall with conditions, which favour her on some courts and work against her on others.