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. I wrote about her and actually predicted a major breakout like Raducanu link here from 2022. 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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Steve · June 4, 2026 at 1:28 pm
Hopefully she and Arnaldi can shock the world.
Scoop Malinowski · June 4, 2026 at 2:21 pm
Why not? Did you notice after Schnaider took the fake injury medical timeout, Chwalinska did not miss one ball. From 34 down in the second set she did not miss a ball, she did double fault once and Schnaider hit some winners but zero errors by Maja when the pressure was the highest. I would not bet against her or Arnaldi or Mensik or anyone left.
Scoop Malinowski · June 5, 2026 at 6:54 am
I predicted this Maja Chwalinska breakout four years ago in 2022. https://www.tennis-prose.com/bios/is-maja-chwalinska-the-next-raducanu/?fbclid=IwY2xjawSPiftleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETF0anhuYjV0ZUJrdGFDNFF5c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHitYRz8BOBjCHfZ31W3jhgWppoqStBNjoSfTpSGxPcsm5mJODGtEwfmNV2A3_aem_eKQo5glFeI9PcYoGXt-HeQ
Cyndy · June 7, 2026 at 8:15 am
Scoop Malinowski — yes and me too I have never heard of her and saw her semi finals match against Shnaider and thought oh that she’s playing super well but probably she was bothered by the winds on finals day it sort of affected her it seems. Zverev will be on court soon and hope that he will clinch the FO title!
Scoop Malinowski · June 7, 2026 at 10:20 am
Cyndy, as we are seeing Chwalinska is a delightful magnetic alluring personality, one of the WTA’s sweetest. She is now an instant huge crowd favorite, she won our hearts with just a few matches. All her interviews are touching. I watched her at US Open qualies 2022 and she was so good with fans after taking every picture, she is a natural champion. That’s why I wrote that article about her in 2022. I saw her qualities. The mystery is why it took so long to make this breakthrough. Save it for the book. ) I see a Zverev rampage, he has waited too long for this.