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PARIS — The French Open has grown accustomed to seeing a Polish woman in the semifinals. There’s a reason it’s been nicknamed “Poland Garros” over the past few years.
Usually, that spot is reserved for Iga Świątek, the four-time champion, who reached the semifinals five out of six times between 2020 and 2025.
But Świątek was knocked out in the fourth round by Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, as the Queen of Clay continues her journey to rediscovering the tennis that helped her dominate the women’s tour for years.
She needn’t have worried about who would carry Poland’s banner in her stead.
In her first appearance in the main draw at Roland Garros, world No. 114 Maja Chwalińska won her eighth match in a row Wednesday, defeating No. 22 seed Anna Kalinskaya 7-6(3), 6-3 to become the second qualifier — and second Polish woman, after Świątek — to reach the French Open semifinals in the Open Era.
Then, on Friday, she won her ninth. Chwalińska, whose name is pronounced “Hva-LEEN-ska,” overcame Aryna Sabalenka’s conqueror, 22-year-old Russian Diana Shnaider, 7-6(4), 6-4 to reach the final.
“I’m just very proud that I stayed composed, and managed to win this set,” Chwalińska said in her news conference after beating Kalinskaya. “Then the second set was just a battle. So I’m very happy, happy to win.”
It is Chwalińska’s composure that stands out above all as she navigates the biggest on-court achievement of her tennis career. A promising junior in Poland, she made it to the Australian Open girls’ doubles final with Świątek as her partner in 2017, but their careers diverged after that. Chwalińska dealt with injuries, including a knee surgery in 2022, as well as a period of depression. She still primarily competes in WTA 125 tournaments, held the level below the WTA Tour.
Her only Grand Slam victory before last week was at Wimbledon four years ago, when she returned to tennis after taking a hiatus to manage her mental health.
“I was struggling a lot. You know, I pushed at the beginning,” Chwalińska said of her sabbatical. “I thought that I just need to stay very strong, tough, and just keep practicing.
“But then I just couldn’t get out of bed anymore. I was just lifeless, to be honest. … I needed to take a break, and I honestly didn’t know if I was going to come back or not.
“I needed to kind of figure a few things in my head, I would say. … And I came back. I’m happy that I did.”
In Paris, bigger stages and tougher competition than she’s used to have not cowed the 24-year-old. She hadn’t beaten a player ranked inside the top 50 as of May 27, but coming through three rounds of qualifying calcified her trust in her game.
She knocked out Zheng Qinwen, who won Olympic gold at Roland Garros two years ago, No. 23 seed Elise Mertens, 2021 semifinalist Maria Sakkari and the Frenchwoman Diane Parry on Court Philippe-Chatrier en route to her quarterfinal appearance. Then she won some more.
“I think the level is very close, like, the qualifying is not much worse than the main draw,” Chwalińska said.
“And the players in the qualifying, they are so good, as well. They are great competitors. We just need to fight, and just believe that maybe some day it will click for us, as well.”
Chwalińska hasn’t processed her streak enough to feel overwhelmed by making it to the final four. To that end, she abides by a strict rule these days for time spent on her phone. She publishes one celebratory post per victory, “and then I quit,” Chwalińska said with a smile, slicing her hand through the air like a knife.
Chwalińska has benefited from being an unknown to most of her opponents before she faced them in Paris. She’d only played Sakkari before, and just once last year on clay.
That makes her already tricky game particularly hard to grasp. In part because Chwalińska grew up a head shorter than most of her junior competitors — she is all of 5 feet 5 inches tall — she developed a style full of slice and spin, that utilizes drop shots and forces baseliners to play without rhythm.
“I’m aware that it can be very annoying for other players,” she said Wednesday. “I just try to use it as much as I can.”
In her spare time away from the court, she likes to play chess.
Her tactics worked Wednesday against Kalinskaya on a windy, cool afternoon, and they worked again against Shnaider under the roof. Chwalińska carved drop shots out of nowhere, looped forehands and backhands out of Shnaider’s strike zone, and took the ball down the line early and often.
Most of all, Chwalińska kept her cool. When it was over, she had the biggest win of her life, for the second match in a row.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Tennis, Women’s Tennis
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