Chwalinska Stuns Shnaider, Reaches French Open Final
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- Maja Chwalinska, ranked world No 114, stunned 25th seed Diana Shnaider 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 in the French Open semi-final, becoming the first qualifier to reach a Grand Slam singles final since Emma Raducanu's 2021 US Open triumph.
- Chwalinska had won only one major main-draw match in her career before this run (Wimbledon 2022) and collapsed to the clay in delight, telling the crowd: 'Like a dream. I don't know what's going on.'
- Diana Shnaider had knocked out world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka just 24 hours earlier but could not back it up, conceding the decisive break in the ninth game of the second set against a fellow left-hander.
- Mirra Andreeva, the 19-year-old eighth seed, dismantled Marta Kostyuk 6-1 6-3 in just 1 hour 16 minutes to reach her own first Grand Slam final, banishing memories of her 2024 semi-final loss to Jasmine Paolini.
- Andreeva and Kostyuk posed for separate pre-match photos and skipped the post-match handshake amid tensions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine; Kostyuk — the first Ukrainian woman in the open era to reach the Paris semi-finals — waved to fans draped in Ukrainian flags as she left.
- Andreeva said afterwards: 'I just told myself no matter what happens, I am going to fight and give my best. With this kind of mindset, I ended up winning.'
Why it matters: Chwalinska's qualifier-to-finalist run, with a ranking of 114, mirrors Raducanu's 2021 fairy tale and gives the 24-year-old Pole a shot at the title on Saturday. The politically charged Andreeva-Kostyuk semi — separate photos, no handshake, Ukrainian flags on Chatrier — pushed the war's human toll visibly onto the sport's biggest clay stage.
