Ranked 114th in the world before the start of the Paris tournament, Maja Chwalinska (24 years old) qualified for the final! There she will face Mirra Andreeva (19 years old, seed no. 8).
Affected by the heat, but also by the wind, the tournament at Roland Garros was not without surprises this year. And the biggest of these was provided by a player from Poland. Chwalinska won 7-6/4, 6-4 in the semi-final against Diana Shnaider (Russia, seeded No. 25) after two hours and 10 minutes.
Chwalinska and Andreeva did not face each other again
She is the first player to reach the final at Roland Garros coming from the qualifiers. Also, she is the third player who will fight for the trophy on her debut on the main draw there, after the Australian Evonne Goolagong (1971) and the American Chris Evert (1973). She is the second Polish player in the Open Era (from 1968 onwards) to reach the final of a Grand Slam tournament coming from the qualifications after Emma Răducanu, who also won at the US Open in 2021.
On Saturday, June 6, Maja Chwalinska will face the Russian Mirra Andreeva, who also reached a grand slam final for the first time. In the semifinals, she prevailed 6-1, 6-3 over Marta Kostyuk (Ukraine, seed no. 15).
Maja Chwalinska will climb from 114th place on 21st
It will be the first confrontation between Chwalinska and Andreeva in the WTA circuit. For the presence in the final, each player will earn 1,300 points and at least 1.4 million euros ($1.625 million). Entering the tournament ranked 114th, the Pole will climb at least 21st. This will ensure her participation in all WTA tournaments directly on the main draw.
It is interesting that until she played at Roland Garros this year, the Pole had achieved her best performance in Cluj, in February, when she reached the quarter-finals. Also, she won in the first round in Iași, last year. Forced (due to ranking) to play mainly on the ITF circuit and WTA 125 tournaments, she performed well there, winning titles in Montreux (Switzerland) in September and Oeiras (Portugal) in April.
As for Mirra Andreeva, she is the youngest player to reach a Grand Slam final since Coco Gauff (18), also in Paris, four years ago. She became the third youngest Roland Garros finalist of the 21st century, being overtaken by Gauff and Kim Clijsters (17 years old, in 2001).
