Maja Chwalinska’s Parisian dream could have the perfect ending after the qualifier improbably reached the French Open final.
The 24-year-old’s 7-6 (4) 6-4 victory over Russian Diana Shnaider on Court Philippe Chatrier was her ninth in a row at Roland Garros, and set up a final clash with eighth seed Mirra Andreeva.
Chwalinska, who is ranked 114th, arrived in Paris as one of 128 players just hoping to make it through to the main draw and without ever having beaten a top-50 player.
Now she has toppled four in a row as well as Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen, and will fully believe she can match Emma Raducanu’s achievement in New York five years ago, when the then 18-year-old became the first qualifier to win a slam title.
The Pole produced her best performance yet to see off 25th seed Shnaider, who in 24 hours went from the high of defeating world number one Aryna Sabalenka to being bamboozled by a qualifier.
Chwalinska has an unorthodox game based not on power but on an intelligent use of spins and angles, creating a puzzle that none of her opponents have so far been able to solve.
The first set alone lasted longer than Andreeva’s 6-1 6-3 victory over Marta Kostyuk earlier, and Chwalinska got better and better.
After a final winner flew past the stranded Shnaider, Chwalinska collapsed to the clay in delight and disbelief, and she had to pause before her on-court interview while the crowd chanted her name.
“Like a dream,” she eventually said when asked how the achievement felt. “I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know what to say.”
Chwalinska admitted she is feeling the physical effects of her run but is optimistic she will be able to recover.
“I’m going to sleep, and I’m going to drink my tea,” she said. “I’m going to watch something good, maybe some tennis, because I’m a tennis freak a bit. And that’s it.”
Chwalinska will triple her career earnings with the 1.4million euros (approximately £1.2million) she is guaranteed in prize money.
She has relied on the support of a Polish company that stepped in to pay her extended hotel bill, while she does not yet have a clothing sponsor.
Chwalinska, meanwhile, revealed a bad habit her coaching team have got into, saying: “I’m not a very superstitious person, I would say, but my coaches are. They eat pizza every day, and we are three weeks here.
“They’re going to gain so much weight. It’s going to be terrible. But, if they want, I can’t say no. Maybe it helps.”
At 19, Andreeva was the youngest player left in the last four but also the most experienced having reached the same stage here two years ago.
The Russian is a prodigious talent but it is attaining a new level of emotional maturity that has helped her break fresh ground here with a first slam final appearance.
“Before, I was nervous,” said Andreeva, who has suffered several on-court meltdowns.
“Now I’m also nervous when I play matches like this or when I’m up in the score and I’m serving and the opponent breaks me. Before I was thinking that, ‘oh, my God, if I lost my serve, it’s like the end of the world’.
“But now I feel like, if she broke me, well, so what? I will try to break her back. Because, if I get nervous when I serve, I think she also can get nervous when she serves.”
