Chwalińska's Cinderella run continues

Maja Chwalińska's magical week in Paris reached new heights on Saturday as the 24-year-old qualifier defeated Greece's Maria Sakkari 1:6, 6:3, 6:2 to advance to the fourth round of Roland Garros. The match lasted two hours and seven minutes. Chwalińska, who stands at just 164 cm, has now won six matches in Paris including qualifying, taking down Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng and 23rd seed Elise Mertens before toppling Sakkari.

“I started playing closer to the line, more aggressively, I began dictating the conditions and got more into the match. I won't hide that I didn't feel very good in the first set. And actually throughout the whole match I was fighting with myself physically.”

A tale of two sets

After a disastrous opening set where Chwalińska committed 14 unforced errors and lost 1:6, the Pole completely turned the match around. In the second and third sets combined, she made only 14 unforced errors while Sakkari racked up 36. The Greek's frustration grew visibly as she shouted at her coaches and consulted her notes, but found no answer to Chwalińska's combination of deep shots, drop shots, and lobs.

“Women's tennis resembles a competition of musclemen, where the ball flies at 200 kilometers per hour. Maja doesn't fit that profile because she plays a kind of medieval tennis. Everyone will tell you that you shouldn't play like that anymore. But it's great to watch.”

Parry's marathon upset

In another stunning result, France's Diane Parry, ranked 92nd, eliminated world No. 6 Amanda Anisimova in a match lasting nearly three hours. The 24-year-old from Nice had started her tournament by losing a set 0:6 to Ukraine's Anhelina Kalinina before rallying to win. Against Anisimova, Parry led 1-0 in sets and had a break in the third, but the contest was ultimately decided in a super tiebreak played to 10 points. Parry was unstoppable from 3:3, winning every point thereafter.

What's at stake

Chwalińska and Parry will face each other for the first time on the professional tour on Monday, with the winner making her Grand Slam quarterfinal debut. For Chwalińska, the run has already guaranteed her a career-high ranking — she is virtually 75th in the world and will enter the top 100 for the first time. The prize money for reaching the fourth round amounts to $333,057, nearly 40 percent of her entire career earnings of $864,030 before Paris.

“The year 2023 was very tough, I had a lot of difficult moments. I also started working with Jola Rusin, who helped me a lot physically after surgery, when it was hard for me to return to form. She helped me enormously with feeling my body again, I will always be very grateful to her for that.”

Sabalenka advances

Elsewhere, world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka defeated Australia's Daria Kasatkina 6:0, 7:5 to book a fourth-round clash with Japan's Naomi Osaka. Sabalenka dominated the first set but had to rally from a break down in the second, ultimately closing out the match with a decisive break at 5:5.