{"id":684861,"date":"2026-06-05T00:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/684861\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T00:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:21:11","slug":"maja-chwalinskas-life-changing-french-open-run-is-built-on-self-acceptance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/684861\/","title":{"rendered":"Maja Chwali\u0144ska\u2019s life-changing French Open run is built on self-acceptance"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 French Open quarterfinals.<\/a><\/p>\n

PARIS \u2014 The French Open<\/a> has grown accustomed to seeing a Polish woman in the semifinals. There\u2019s a reason it\u2019s been nicknamed \u201cPoland Garros\u201d over the past few years.<\/p>\n

Usually, that spot is reserved for Iga \u015awi\u0105tek<\/a>, the four-time champion, who reached the semifinals five out of six times between 2020 and 2025.<\/p>\n

But \u015awi\u0105tek was knocked out in the fourth round by Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk<\/a>, as the Queen of Clay continues her journey to rediscovering the tennis that helped her dominate the women\u2019s tour for years.<\/p>\n

She needn\u2019t have worried about who would carry Poland\u2019s banner in her stead.<\/p>\n

In her first appearance in the main draw at Roland Garros, world No. 114 Maja Chwali\u0144ska won her eighth match in a row Wednesday, defeating No. 22 seed Anna Kalinskaya 7-6(3), 6-3 to become the second qualifier \u2014 and second Polish woman, after \u015awi\u0105tek \u2014 to reach the French Open semifinals in the Open Era.<\/p>\n

Then, on Thursday, she won her ninth. Chwali\u0144ska, whose name is pronounced \u201cHva-LEEN-ska,\u201d overcame Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s conqueror, 22-year-old Russian Diana Shnaider,<\/a> 7-6(4), 6-4 to reach the final. She is the lowest-ranked French Open finalist in the Open Era, and she has changed her life in ways far beyond sports.<\/p>\n

Before the French Open, Chwali\u0144ska had earned $864,030 in career prize money, according to the WTA Tour. Her exploits at Roland Garros have so far earned her $1,624,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just very proud that I stayed composed, and managed to win this set,\u201d Chwali\u0144ska said in her news conference after beating Kalinskaya. \u201cThen the second set was just a battle. So I\u2019m very happy, happy to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is Chwali\u0144ska\u2019s 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\u2019 doubles final with \u015awi\u0105tek as her partner in 2017, but their careers diverged after that. Chwali\u0144ska 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was struggling a lot. You know, I pushed at the beginning,\u201d Chwali\u0144ska said of her sabbatical. \u201cI thought that I just need to stay very strong, tough, and just keep practicing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then I just couldn\u2019t get out of bed anymore. I was just lifeless, to be honest. \u2026 I needed to take a break, and I honestly didn\u2019t know if I was going to come back or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cI needed to kind of figure a few things in my head, I would say. \u2026 And I came back. I\u2019m happy that I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Paris, bigger stages and tougher competition than she\u2019s used to have not cowed the 24-year-old. She hadn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 in between worrying about how to pay for a hotel, before Oshee, the Polish company which sponsors \u015awi\u0105tek, stepped in. Chwali\u0144ska now has one of their patches on her shirt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the level is very close, like, the qualifying is not much worse than the main draw,\u201d Chwali\u0144ska said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Maja<\/p>\n

\n Maja Chwali\u0144ska had never been beyond the second round of a Grand Slam before this French Open. (Matthew Stockman \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Chwali\u0144ska hasn\u2019t processed her streak enough to feel overwhelmed by making it to the final. To that end, she abides by a strict rule these days for time spent on her phone. She publishes one celebratory post per victory, \u201cand then I quit,\u201d Chwali\u0144ska said with a smile, slicing her hand through the air like a knife.<\/p>\n

Chwali\u0144ska has benefited from being an unknown to most of her opponents before she faced them in Paris. She\u2019d only played Sakkari before, and just once last year on clay.<\/p>\n

That makes her already tricky game particularly hard to grasp. In part because Chwali\u0144ska grew up a head shorter than most of her junior competitors \u2014 she is all of 5 feet 5 inches tall \u2014 she developed a style full of slice and spin, that utilizes drop shots and forces baseliners to play without rhythm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m aware that it can be very annoying for other players,\u201d she said Wednesday. \u201cI just try to use it as much as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her spare time away from the court, she likes to play chess.<\/p>\n

Her tactics worked Wednesday against Kalinskaya on a windy, cool afternoon, and they worked again against Shnaider under the roof. Chwali\u0144ska carved drop shots out of nowhere, looped forehands and backhands out of Shnaider\u2019s strike zone, and took the ball down the line early and often.<\/p>\n

Most of all, Chwali\u0144ska kept her cool. When it was over, she had the biggest win of her life, for the second match in a row.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 French Open quarterfinals. PARIS \u2014 The French Open has grown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-684861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}