Well, what a Roland Garros that was! If there is anyone in the entire world that had Mirra Andreeva and Maja Chwalinska as the finalists, I would like next week’s lottery number from them please. Yes, Mirra was a contender and her winning a slam at some point in her career was totally on the cards, but this year? She has had some emotional struggles in 2026 (the pearl clutching after she swore at the crowd in Indian Wells was one of the funniest moments of the year so far!)
Mirra’s tennis has been solid – making the Madrid final – but not the very best as she was well beaten in that Madrid final. However in a tournament when everyone else fell by the wayside – and some in a truly shocking ways – Mirra showed composure and clarity of thought to claim her first grand slam title.
But who IS that standing next to her? Polish qualifier Maja Chwalinska so very nearly did an Emma Raducanu, winning 9 matches – three in qualifying and six in the main draw to be an even more unlikely grand slam finalist than Raducanu! Chwalinska was mostly known to WTA fans as Iga Swiatek’s little friend. They were runners up in the girls doubles at the 2017 Australian Open (cute photo alert!) when they lost to Bianca Andreescu and Carson Branstine.
Chwalinska had been toiling away on the tour, mostly on the lower level, for years. Now at age 24, she goes on a run that really did come out of nowhere. When Raducanu won the US Open as a qualifier in 2021, she had just finished school a few months previously, and had a run to the 4th round at Wimbledon before her Cinderella run in New York. Chwalinska had given no such indication that a run like this was likely.
However, after qualifying a few eyebrows were raised when she beat former top 10 player, Qinwen Zheng 6-4, 6-0. Bagelling someone who won the Olympic gold medal here a few years ago?? Reports were that she was a leftie and played with a lot of loop, spin and drop shots and made Qinwen lose all rhythm. OK, nice for her… But then she took out Elise Mertens, who always wins a few rounds at slams and is a solid pro . Well done young qualifier. But the run is surely going go end in round three against Maria Sakkari, on the comeback trail these days. Sakkari won the first set of their match 6-1. It was nice while it lasted…. oh wait, Maja is on the comeback trail and wins in three sets!
Her first trip to Philippe Chatrier court was next as she was up against the French player Diane Parry in round four, who was on a bit of a run herself. However, Chwalinska just kept Parry and her very nice one handed backhand off balance and made her make errors. Lots of them. Bye bye Diane, lets roll Maja! OK, surely Anna Kalinskaya in the quarterfinals would be too clean a ball striker for her. Nope! Kalinskaya is also a bit too erratic and a straight sets win put her into the SEMIFINALS! There she would play Diana Shnaider who got a shock win over world number 1 Aryna Sabalenka the day before (more on THAT disaster later!) Shnaider would have no trouble with the world number 114 after beating the world number 1 right? I have to say, that semifinal between Chwalinska and Shnaider was one of my favourite matches of the tournament! Chwalinska sliced, drop shotted, retrieved and played a tactical masterclass to defeat the Russian. Shnaider did not play badly and occasionally got her bigger shots in but this all-leftie battle was like a chess match.
By this stage a lot of us neutrals were rooting for Chwalinska to win the whole thing. Her story was so outrageous, she was so humble and modest. Her tennis was old school variety from a player who only stands at 5 feet 5 inches. Of course, not every fairy tale has a happy ending. Well, for Maja Chwalinska anyway. She looked a little tired in the final, but Mirra Andreeva was super calm, used her superior power and stayed patient when Chwalinska tried to manoeuvre the ball around. She did not let Chwalinska play her best so a fairly tame 6-3, 6-2 win for Andreeva was an accurate reflections, but boy oh boy was it fun watching the magical run of Maja Chwalinska.
Also, huge congratulations to Mirra Andreeva and her coach, Conchita Martinez. Female coaches are starting to be more prominent now – of the final 8 players, three (Andreeva, Kostyuk and Kalinskaya) have women coaches which is a positive step. Mirra is 19 years old but with several years of tour experience. She IS still a work in progress but was the best player of these two weeks and now joins the ranks of grand slam champions! I will be very surprised if she does not add a few more in the years to come so, congratulations Mirra.
So what happened to all those pre-tournament favourites? Well, this Roland Garros was notable for horribly hot weather in the first week – temperatures well over 30 degrees Celsius. It did for red hot favourite in the men’s tournament Jannik Sinner (who I saw lose in person on my trip to Roland Garros – a very hot and sticky trip and I totally sympathised with Sinner. I felt dizzy and I was sitting still!)
The shocks started early when Jess Pegula lost in round 1 to Kimberley Birrell, Elena Rybakina and Jasmnine Paolini lost in round 2, Amanda Anisimova, Karolina Muchova and Coco Gauff went out in round 3, Iga Swiatek in round 4 but the biggest and most baffling loss was world number 1 Aryna Sabalenka losing in the quarter finals to Diana Shnaider 6-3, 5-7, 0-6. Sabalenka was a set and 4-1 up, served for the match at 5-3 and didn’t win another game. Yes, it was windy, but it was windy at the start of the match and she had managed to get to a set and double break up. Her disintegration was alarming and quite horrible to watch as she spiralled out of the tournament, a tournament she was odds-on favourite to win as the only grand slam champion left at this point.
Even at 4-1 up in the second set, I was concerned as she was yelling at her box, looking flustered. But surely she would pull herself together and finish this off. She wasn’t playing a grand slam final against Coco Gauff. She was in the lead for goodness sake! Sabalenka said in her press conference that she got into a deep dark hole and just couldn’t get out of it. For me as a fan of hers, it was just incomprehensible. This performance makes her final loss to Coco Gauff last year look pretty good. At least in the 2025 final she kept fighting, kept going for her shots and nearly making them. In this loss as soon as she lost the second set there was indeed a dark look. She didn’t take a bathroom break to regroup, she just blasted away and looked like she wanted to get off that court as soon as possible. I still have trouble understanding it.
After last year’s final, Aryna Sabalenka said she needed to learn not to get frustrated and say stupid things. I am not sure what she can take from this loss. Was she feeling the pressure of being the overwhelming favourite? We know she doesn’t like the wind but as a champion, was she really not able to adjust? This loss and this performance was so bad, it will raise a whole lot more questions about Sabalenka in big matches. Maybe she can write it off as just a bad day. She has been amazingly consistent in slams in the last few years. Indeed a few of her records do still stand. She once again made the quarterfinal of a slam at least. She did not lose in straight sets. One of my favourite Sabalenka statistics is in grand slams her last straight sets loss was to Victoria Azarenka in the US Open of 2020! But I am concerned. I think this was a bruising loss and one that many other players will take note of. If the wind blows, you can get her off balance!
Not really much better was the way Iga Swiatek – many people’s favourite for the title – was beaten quite routinely by Marta Kostyuk. Iga just looked outplayed. However, Kostyuk, who was looking like a good prospect to lift the title herself – then really didn’t show up in a much anticipated semifinal against Mirra Andreeva. Kostyuk had followed up her win over Swiatek in the 4th round with a strong victory over sentimental favourite Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinal. Svitolina had been sublime in Rome, but had not been as convincing at Roland Garros and looked more nervy. Especially at the start of her matches. But the way Kostyuk overpowered her at the end of the third set had a lot of people really looking forward to a repeat of the Madrid final, where Kostyuk combined defence and attack so well. I’ve heard some people theorise that after big wins over Swiatek and Svitolina, Kostyuk was emotionally tired. Whatever the reason, that semifinal was probably one of the most disappointing matches of the tournament in that it just was never a contest. Kostyuk was a step slow, couldn’t get the ball in court. Mirra Andreeva just went through the gears without playing spectacular tennis. She didn’t need to.
For the first time in several years there was a women’s match in the night session at Roland Garros. When Aryna Sabalenka and Naomi Osaka faced off in the 4th round it was a real occasion. Osaka had a decent run at Roland Garros although her walk on outfits will probably be remembered better than her tennis. She actually played pretty well through three rounds. Her win over Iva Jovic a notably well disciplined victory. The match against Sabalenka was a fiercely competitive one but the world number 1 just seemed to have that little bit more in tight moments. Better variety, better serving, better movement. Sabalenka had looked so good, it makes her meltdown in the very next round even more baffling…
So overall, the women’s singles tournament was a wild ride! The blistering hot first week was followed by a cold and windy week two. Was that partly responsible for the mad, mad, mad, mad results? I have no idea, but the men’s singles was similarly crazy with endless 4 or 5 hour five set matches and a thoroughly underwhelming winner.
Oddly enough though, the doubles were a totally different story! For the first time in many years the men’s, women’s and mixed doubles were all won by the top seeds!
I must admit, I love watching Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori play mixed doubles together. Errani is such an enigma. That serve that looks like it should be murdered by any opponent, each shot accompanied by a loud yell. Vavassori is all over the place with speed and strength. The two of them growling in each other’s faces on victory. Waiting for the underarm serve from Errani… they are a lot of fun – and the best mixed doubles team around.
Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend continued what has been a great run for them by taking the women’s doubles title at Roland Garros. It is their third together, Siniakova’s 11th doubles slam altogether – 7 with Krejcikova , 1 with Coco Gauff and now 3 with Taylor Townsend. I am, of course a huge Siniakova fan but I must admit, I was kind of rooting for Anna Danilina and Alex Krunic to finally get a slam. This was their third slam final in 12 months having finished runners-up here to Errani and Paolini a year ago and then losing out to Mertens and Zhang in Australia this year. However, right now Katka and Taylor look head and shoulders above everyone else. It is very reminiscent of the many years Sinakova and Krejcikova dominated the doubles world. What is remarkable is that if Siniakova and Townsend manage to win the US Open – they lost in the final last year – they would complete the career slam of all four major titles, something Siniakova has already done with Krejcikova. I am not sure any doubles player has achieved that with two different partners! Siniakova really is a generational talent in doubles.
I also want to shout out the return of the queen of wheelchair tennis. Diede de Groot won the title in Paris – her first slam title for two years after hip surgery sidelined her and put into doubt whether she could ever return to the dominating champion that she was. A loss in the gold medal match at the Paris 2024 Olympics was the start of her decline and the subsequent surgery took her away from the sport for over 8 months.
She returned a year ago but had trouble imposing herself and showing the same level. However after making the final at the Australian Open in January, she went one step better in Paris. It was so great to see her back where she belongs! The final was a slightly uncomfortable mauling of a young French opponent 6-1, 6-0 but the semifinal against top seed Yui Kamiji was a fantastic battle with de Groot looking like her old self again. and a nice round 24 grand slam titles, six at each of the majors!
A quick mention that I also attended the tournament for the very first time on the first Thursday! It was very hot and so I honestly could not spend too long on the outside courts before I started to feel like Jannik Sinner, but amazing to visit and I would love to go back when the temperatures are a bit more normal!
Au revoir Paris… and roll on the grass! (And Serena Williams is back!!)
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