Most tennis fans never saw Maja Chwalinska before this French Open. She only won one Grand Slam match in her career before this tournament and was stuck well outside the top 100.
The 24 year old lefthander from Poland qualified for the main draw and has won five rounds including today’s 76 63 victory against 22 seed Anna Kalinskaya. She is now the biggest surprise of the tournament and in the semis. Her three previous French Open appearances all ended in qualies. Her only Grand Slam match won before this fortnight happened at Wimbledon 2022 first round where she beat Siniakova after qualifying.
I first saw Chwalinska at US Open qualies 2022 where she struck me as a potential star. She impressively won her match but lost the next day. But I loved her court presence, emotional energy and also her Marcelo Rios apparently inspired play style. She is the most Rios like player in the game today in how she stays low and can move the ball around the court with variety and precision. I kept an eye on her results since then but there was nothing noteworthy.
Chwalinska was a junior peer and doubles partner of Iga Swiatek but her career stagnated as another case of a very good junior who was failing to adapt to the pros. Until this tournament, she was regarded as a flop and nothing more than a struggling journeywoman.
Somehow everything has changed this month. Her career earnings of $861,000 prior to 2026 Roland Garros have been surpassed and more than doubled ($870,000) and she isn’t done yet. Chwalinska will face Diana Schnaider in the semifinal and that certainly is a winnable game for the word no. 114 who will elevate up to the top 30 next week.
There were few hints of this explosion by Chwalinska. She lost first round in her previous tournament to WTA 410 Federica Urgesi in Parma. She lost 46 06 earlier this year to Emma Raducanu in Transylvania. She lost earlier this season at three tournaments in a row 67 in the third set twice (to Vidmanova and Zidansek and 57 in the third set to Uchijima.
But Chwalinska has persevered and kept the faith and all the sudden found the way to win matches, eight matches in a row, now she’s four sets from winning a Grand Slam title.
As we know by now, sport can be stranger than fiction.
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