Chwalinska’s childhood dream and discipline drive fairytale French Open run

Maja Chwalinska’s incredible run as the first qualifier to reach a French Open final in the professional era marks the fulfillment of an ambition the Polish 24-year-old has chased with relentless passion and discipline for over a decade.

Chwalinska beat Diana Shnaider in Thursday’s semifinal and will take on a Russian opponent for the third consecutive round when she meets eighth seed Mirra Andreeva in Saturday’s decider. She has fought her way through nine matches at Roland Garros, dropping just one set, and old videos of a young Chwalinska have dominated Poland’s social media in recent days.

A Polish player in ‌the Paris final ‌is no surprise in itself — Iga Swiatek is a ‌four-time
winner — but now the country is getting to know a less familiar name, and discovering how she made it this far.

“To play this sport professionally, I think you need qualities like perseverance,” a 13-year-old Chwalinska said in an archived TVP Katowice video.

“You have to keep working on yourself all the time and not
give up.”

In the same TV interview, her parents spoke about the sacrifices the young Chwalinska had to make.

“She has her entire day planned out from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.,” her ‌father, Tomasz, said, “organizing everything around doing her ‌homework at school so she doesn’t have to
miss training.”

“Maja is still a child, but ‌right now she has no time for childhood,” added Marcela, her mother. “And she ‌certainly won’t have it in the future.”

Even then, Chwalinska appeared well aware of the difficulties involved in making a career as an athlete.

“It might not work out, but in my adult life I would definitely like to do something connected with sports, with tennis,” Chwalinska said ‌in another video from 2014.

“And if