Sonay Kartal missed out on becoming just the second British tennis player to win a WTA 1000 title when falling to defeat against Maja Chwalinska at the Wuhan Open final on Sunday afternoon.
Kartal won her first and only WTA title when defeating Rebecca Šramková 6–3, 7–5 at the Jasmin Open in Tunisia in September 2024, but she's since enjoyed very little success on the tour.
She competed in every Grand Slam in 2025, exiting the Australian Open and US Open in the first round, the French Open in the second round and Wimbledon in the fourth round.
Her 2026 campaign has been significantly hampered by a debilitating back injury, sidelined for six months before returning to action at the China Open, where she was eliminated in the third round.
Kartal was absent from the Wuhan Open in 2024 and 2025, but she enjoyed an impressive debut campaign.
The 24-year-old won all of her first three contests at the tournament by two sets to love, before eventually dropping a set in a superb three-set victory over world number six Elina Svitolina in the quarter-finals.
She got the better of former Grand Slam champion Jelena Ostapenko in two tiebreaks in the semi-final to book her place in the final, becoming the lowest-ranked WTA 1000 finalist since 1990.
After winning the first set, Kartal lost successive sets against 2026 French Open finalist Chwalinska in the Wuhan Open final, denying her from becoming just the second Brit ever to win a WTA 1000 event.
Johanna Konta remains the only Brit to have achieved this feat with her success at the Miami Open in 2017.
Despite falling at the final hurdle, Kartal will return to the world's top 50 and become Britain's number one player when the next rankings are released on Monday, having previously been as high as 44th in the world.
