Aryna Sabalenka and Jasmine Paolini’s Wuhan Open campaigns came to an end in the semi-final and we take a look at their prize money and how it affected their WTA Rankings.

Having won the last three editions of the Wuhan event, defending champion Sabalenka started her match against Jessica Pegula with a 20-0 record at the tournament while she enjoyed an 8-2 lead in her head-to-head record against the American.

But after losing the opening set, Pegula bounced back to secure a 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) victory over the world No 1 since the 2023 WTA Finals.

Paolini caused the upset of the tournament in the quarter-final when she claimed her first career win over six-time Grand Slam winner Iga Swiatek, but she failed to reproduce that quality against Coco Gauff as the world No 3 won 6-4, 6-3.

While Pegula and Gauff will battle it out for a winner’s cheque of $596,000 in the showpiece match, Sabalenka and Paolini are heading home.

WTA Ranking Points Earned In Wuhan

Sabalenka was the defending champion at the China Open so she had a lot on the spell as WTA 1000 winners earn 1,000 points for their efforts.

With the WTA using a rolling 52-week, cumulative system, players drop points from the corresponding period 12 months ago at the start of every tournament and they then earn points round by round again.

So Sabalenka started with -1,000 and by reaching the semi-final she earned 390 points, meaning she was -610 after the tournament.

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But it is not all bad news for the four-time Grand Slam winner as her run to the last four has virtually assured her of the year-end No 1 ranking as she has 10,400 points in the Live Rankings with Swiatek on 8,768.

Both won’t feature again on the regular WTA Tour again this year with their final event the season-ending WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia.

Paolini, meanwhile, went one better than in 2024 and added 175 points to her tally, but she remains at No 8 in the WTA Rankings, although she is now just 119 points behind Madison Keys.

Prize Money Earned At WTA 1000 Event

Sabalenka started the tournament with prize money earnings of $12,133,419 so far in 2025 and she has added another $180,100 to her tally.

With that cheque she took her career earnings to $42,480,621, but she remains in fourth on the all-time list with Serena Williams top with $94m and Swiatek ($42.9m) now in second after overtaking Venus Williams ($42.8m) with her run to the quarter-final in Wuhan.

Paolini’s cheque of $180,100 helped her to take her 2025 earnings to $4,747,897 while her career earnings grew to $13,367,242.