ENES
Join the club
Iga Swiatek · Karolina Muchova · Maja Chwalinska · WTA Finals

Swiatek's physio told her three times to stop. Now a Ningbo title alone is not enough

By the Data Desk · ·

Maciej Ryszczuk says he told Iga Swiatek three times to stop her Wuhan semi-final, and she played on with pain in her quad until Maja Chwalinska had won 7-5, 6-1. The defeat leaves Swiatek about 545 points behind Karolina Muchova for the last WTA Finals place, more than the 500 a Ningbo title is worth.

  • Swiatek broke back to lead 5-3 in the first set, took a medical timeout for her leg after Chwalinska saved two set points, and then won one of the last 11 games (WTA).
  • Before Wuhan the official race had Muchova seventh on 4,615 and Swiatek tenth on 3,799. With the standard Wuhan points the gap is 546 by our sum and 545 by Tennis365's; the WTA has not yet published the updated race.
  • Swiatek is seeded second in Ningbo (19 to 25 October) and entered in Tokyo (26 October to 1 November). Muchova is not on the Ningbo list and was not in the Tokyo field the WTA announced on 1 October.
Why it mattersSeven of the eight singles places at Indian Wells are taken, and Muchova holds the last one without hitting another ball. Swiatek has two weeks and two WTA 500 events to pass her, starting the day after the Wuhan final.

The physio's line came on X, in reply to a fan who said the team had pushed her to carry on. "Przestań mówić bzdury, trzy razy powiedziałem jej, żeby przerwała mecz, bo to szkodzi jej zdrowiu", Ryszczuk wrote, as quoted by Sport1.pl: stop talking nonsense, I told her three times to stop the match because it was bad for her health. He added that she decided herself to keep playing and that he supports her as much as he can. Swiatek's own reason, given to the WTA, was about her opponent: "I didn't want to honestly retire because wanted Maja to win it normally."

The match turned on one game. Chwalinska saved two set points at 3-5, the timeout followed, and from there the 25-year-old won 10 of the last 11 games for the first top-10 win of her career. Swiatek said that "from the beginning of the tournament, I kind of felt pain in my quad". Chwalinska, this year's French Open finalist, plays Sonay Kartal in today's final, not before 18:30 local time (10:30 UTC).

The race is where the number bites. The WTA race page still shows the standings before Wuhan, and adding 120 points for Muchova's last 16 and 390 for Swiatek's semi-final gives 4,735 and 4,189, a gap of 546; Tennis365 puts it at 545. Either way the gap is bigger than the 500 points for a Ningbo title. The WTA's race rules also count only 18 results, with just one from Doha, Dubai and Wuhan, so a new result can replace an old one instead of adding in full, and Monday's official table may differ from every press sum.

Swiatek told Interia she will rest and "pojadę do Ningbo i zobaczę, jak to się potoczy" (go to Ningbo and see how it goes), and added that the WTA Finals "nie ma aż takiego znaczenia" for her (do not matter that much). What happens next: Ningbo starts on Monday, 19 October, with Elena Rybakina top seed and Swiatek second; Tokyo and Guangzhou in the week after are the last events that count for the race. The WTA Finals are at Indian Wells from 8 to 15 November.

Our take

Tokyo, not Ningbo, decides Swiatek's season

Our editorial team thinks the Ningbo title is the minimum, not the target: 500 points would still leave Swiatek 45 or 46 short of Muchova on the press figures, before the best-results rule takes anything off. So she has to win Ningbo and then keep winning in Tokyo the week after, two weeks in a row, on a leg she says hurt from the start of Wuhan. Our call: if she does not reach the Ningbo final, Muchova goes to Indian Wells. Our pick on the semi-final was Chwalinska +6.5 games; she won outright, and we will update this story after Swiatek's first match in Ningbo.

Our Swiatek v Chwalinska analysis →Muchova, Shnaider and the last WTA Finals seat →Tennis news →
18+Play responsibly

Updates

  1. The Wuhan final is done: Maja Chwalinska, who beat Swiatek in the semi-final, won the title 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 against Marta Kartal (WTA). The race figures after Wuhan put Muchova on 4,735 and Swiatek on 4,190, a gap of 545 (Last Word on Sports), so a Ningbo title alone (500) still leaves her 45 short. Swiatek is the second seed in Ningbo with a first-round bye; no withdrawal had been announced by 06:00 UTC on Monday.
  2. Swiatek has said she felt pain in her quadriceps from the start of Wuhan and that she and her team considered withdrawing after the second round ("rozważałyśmy wycofanie się", Flashscore Poland). She is still in the Ningbo draw and plays Marie Bouzkova, who beat Kamilla Rakhimova on Monday, in the second round on Wednesday (ESPN). The gap to Muchova is 545 or 546 points depending on the source, so our call stands: if she does not reach the Ningbo final, Muchova goes to Indian Wells, where the WTA Finals are played from 8 to 15 November.
Sources