Just two weeks ago, few but the most die-hard of tennis fans would have been familiar with the name Maja Chwalinska
\nParis
\nNews Agency
\nNow ahead of Saturday\u2019s French Open final against Mirra Andreeva, the 24-year-old Chwalinska stands on the brink of the pantheon of Roland Garros champions as she bids to become the first player in the Open era to win the clay-court Grand Slam after coming through qualifying to reach the main draw.
\n\u201cI feel like I\u2019m in the bubble, I would say. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on. I\u2019m just very happy to be here,\u201d Chwalinska told reporters after becoming the first qualifier to reach the final at Roland Garros in the professional era.
\n\u201cI just try to focus on every single match, give my all, and then after the tournament, there will be time to kind of process it and breathe in, breathe out.\u201d
\nLifting the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen would also make her just the second qualifier to win a major since professionalisation in 1968, equalling Emma Raducanu\u2019s exploits in New York five years ago.
\nBut if the then-teenaged Briton had already made somewhat of a name for herself prior to winning the US Open by making it to the second week of Wimbledon two months earlier, Chwalinska has come from a lot further back to attain major glory.
\n\u201cLet\u2019s not pretend someone expected it,\u201d the world number 114 admitted.<\/p>\n
\u2018Struggling a lot\u2019
\nBorn on the outskirts of Katowice on October 11, 2001, Chwalinska was considered a top Polish prospect as a youth but was always overshadowed by her compatriot and now six-time major winner Iga Swiatek.
\nAccording to the WTA, they both began their professional careers at the same ITF event in Poland in 2015, and secured their first professional victories at the ITF event in Torun the following year.
\nIn 2017, Chwalinska and Swiatek lost the Australian Open girls\u2019 doubles final.
\nAfter that, their career trajectories went in two wildly different directions.
\nChwalinska has mostly toiled in lower-level tournaments, only twice before this year qualifying for the main draw of a Grand Slam.
\nIn 2021, Chwalinska battled with depression and took a break from tennis.
\n\u201cThe break wasn\u2019t very tough,\u201d she said. \u201cThe tough moments were before the break, I would say. I was struggling a lot.\u201d
\nShe revealed that at first she thought she \u201cjust needed to stay very strong, tough, and just keep practising\u201d.
\nBut that eventually, she felt \u201clifeless\u201d and \u201ccouldn\u2019t get out of bed anymore\u201d.
\nChwalinska recovered and returned to action, but her ranking had dropped to No. 346.
\nHowever, the self-proclaimed tennis obsessive revealed that her love for the sport has never diminished despite the travails of the tour.
\n\u201cI love watching tennis. And when I was younger, I watched tennis, like, all day every day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a tennis freak a bit.\u201d
\nGrowing up, Chwalinska\u2019s favourite player was Roger Federer, but she also held a place in her heart for the Swiss\u2019 \u2018Big Three\u2019 rivals, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
\n\u201cI\u2019m just actually very grateful that I was growing up during this era,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd sometimes I come back to these old matches and I watch them play, and it feels like poetry, really.\u201d
\nChwalinska even admitted to taking a picture of 14-time Roland Garros champion Nadal\u2019s plaque on Court Philippe Chatrier during the warm-up before her first match on the French Open showpiece court against Diane Parry in the fourth round.
\nThroughout the tournament in Paris, she has worn numerous different outfits as she is \u201cnot sponsored\u201d and revealed that a Polish company has even had to step in \u201cto help me to cover my hotel expenses these three weeks\u201d, but all that will soon change for her.
\nChwalinska has already more than doubled her career prize money of $864,030 by reaching the final, with 1.4 million euros ($1.63 million) on offer for the runner-up, and 2.8 million euros ($3.26 million) going to the winner.
\nAnd now the player, whose \u201cmain goal\u201d at the start of 2026 was to break into the top 100, will climb to at least No. 21 in the WTA rankings and can be expected to be seen much more regularly on tennis\u2019 biggest stages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just two weeks ago, few but the most die-hard of tennis fans would have been familiar with the name Maja Chwalinska Paris News Agency Now ahead of Saturday\u2019s French Open final against Mirra Andreeva, the 24-year-old Chwalinska stands on the brink of the pantheon of Roland Garros champions as she bids to become the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-549882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n