Qualifier Maja Chwalinska reaches first Grand Slam semi-final at French Open

Maja Chwalinska kept tearing up the French Open hierarchy, beating No. 22 seed Anna Kalinskaya 7-6(3), 6-3 on a windswept Court Philippe-Chatrier to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final. The 24-year-old Polish qualifier, ranked world No. 114, did more than spring an upset: she became only the second women’s qualifier in the Open era to reach the Roland Garros last four, matching Nadia Podoroska’s 2020 run.

Chwalinska’s Paris surge has been built on control rather than reputation. Before this tournament, she had only two career tour-level wins on clay and just one previous Grand Slam main-draw victory, at Wimbledon in 2022. In Paris, she has now won eight consecutive matches across qualifying and the main draw, dropping only one set along the way. Against Kalinskaya, she absorbed the pressure of a seeded opponent and took the key points in the opening tiebreak before closing the match in straight sets.

Kalinskaya arrived with momentum of her own after surviving a bruising fourth-round match against Anastasia Potapova that lasted 2 hours and 49 minutes and ended 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(10-7). The Russian had been chasing her maiden French Open quarter-final and only her second Grand Slam quarter-final after the 2024 Australian Open, but she was broken seven times against Chwalinska and could not wrest control back once the qualifier settled into the contest.

The result underlined how quickly the women’s draw can tilt once the established order is disrupted. Chwalinska entered the tournament with modest clay credentials and left with a place in the semi-finals, a path that has exposed the narrow margin between ranking and reality in Paris. She will next face either world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka or 25th seed Diana Shnaider for a place in Saturday’s final, with the biggest test of her breakthrough still ahead.