Although it was the men’s draw that was in complete shambles from start to finish, it was the women’s side that produced by far the most surprising finalist.
World No. 114 Maja Chwalinska came from completely out of nowhere — or from qualifying, to be exact — to set up a showdown against Mirra Andreeva in the French Open championship match. It is only the second time in Open Era history that a qualifier has advanced all the way to a Grand Slam final (Emma Raducanu won the U.S. Open in 2021).
Can Chwalinska take one more step and go all the way, just as Raducanu did five years ago at Flushing Meadows? Stranger things have happened (well, have they?!?!), but the odds are certainly stacked against the Polish left-hander. Full credit to Chwalinska for winning nine matches (three in qualifying), but she has not defeated anyone seeded better than No. 22 and now she runs into No. 8 Andreeva. It’s also worth noting that the 24-year-old seemed to deal with an apparent leg issue during Thursday’s semifinal victory over Diana Shnaider.
At just 19 years old, Andreeva is also through to her first major final but had already reached three slam quarterfinals — including the Roland Garros semis in 2017 — prior to this fortnight. The Russian is playing the best tennis of her career right now, sporting a 21-3 clay-court record in 2026 with losses only to Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, and Marta Kostyuk. She just avenged that setback against Kostyk — who had been a perfect 17-0 on clay this season — with a 6-1, 6-3 semifinal beatdown. Andreeva has dropped only one set during this event — to Marina Bassols Ribera, whom she promptly clobbered 6-1, 6-1 over the final two sets. No other opponent has even been competitive.
Like all of Andreeva’s previous opponents, Chwalinska probably won’t be able to make this match interesting.
Pick: Andreeva in 2