Mirra Andreeva ends dream run of Maja Chwalinska to capture first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros

Mirra Andreeva ended the dream Roland Garros run of Maja Chwalinska on Saturday, 6-3 6-2, to capture the first Grand Slam title of her career in Paris.

At 19, Andreeva is the first teenager to win Roland Garros since 2020, when another Polish trailblazer—Iga Swiatek–won the title at 19 years old.

And as she’s a younger 19 now than Swiatek was then, Andreeva is actually the youngest woman to win Roland Garros since 1992, when an 18-year-old Monica Seles won the third of her three straight titles in Paris, having also conquered the French capital in 1990 and 1991, at 16 and 17.

Chwalinska was not only the first qualifier, female or male, to reach the final of Roland Garros in the Open Era, but at No. 114 she was the lowest-ranked player to reach the title match on the terre battue in WTA rankings history.

Chwalinska’s unlikely run may have come to an end, but she continued to add some more wins during the post-match trophy ceremony.

“First of all, congrats to Mirra, you are such an incredible player—you are so young and so talented, it’s so annoying,” she joked, drawing laughter.

And it didn’t stop there.

“I would like to thank all you guys who came today, but not only today, but these three weeks,” she said to the crowd. “Thank you for supporting me, I really felt your love, and I’m very, very grateful. I wish you could see a better match today but Mirra was just too good for me, so I guess it’s her fault."

Andreeva charmed the crowd in her acceptance speech, too.

"First of all, of course congratulations to Maja for these amazing three weeks, advancing through qualies, winning so many matches and beating so many great players," she told Chwalinska. "Congrats to your team as well. You guys have done an amazing job, amazing work. You're a very tricky opponent, I wouldn't want to play against you one more time!"

And it was an extra special victory for the 19-year-old Andreeva, who actually relocated to France four years ago for training purposes.

"I've been watching Roland Garros on TV since I was very, very young, so it's also a big dream of mine to win this tournament," she said.

"I honestly cannot believe that I'm holding this trophy right now."

Despite the somewhat one-sided final scoreline, there was barely anything between the two players in the early goings in the match on Saturday, as Chwalinska’s unique blend of spins, high balls and angles seemed to take Andreeva out of her comfort zone, and they traded breaks for four straight games until 2-all, followed by Chwalinska holding at love for 3-2.

But that’s when the match turned on a dime.

Andreeva began stepping in more, not letting Chwalinska weave her way into long, complicated points, and the world No. 8 rattled off nine games in a row—only two of which went to deuce—to build a daunting 6-3, 5-0 lead.

Chwalinska held serve to snap the streak and even broke Andreeva when she served for the match to close the gap to 6-3, 5-2, but Andreeva struck back right away, bringing up triple break (and match) point in the next game and sealing the victory with a big crosscourt backhand winner.

Against a player who had been drawing error after error from her opponents over the course of the last three weeks, Andreeva finished the match with an almost-even 25 winners to 26 unforced errors.

It was her tour-leading 36th win of the year, as well as her 22nd win of the year on clay, which also leads the tour. It’s also her third title of the year, following WTA 500-level triumphs in Adelaide and Linz, which ties the world No. 1, Aryna Sabalenka, for most titles on the women’s tour this year.

Andreeva’s run in Paris will bump her up from No. 8 to a new season-high No. 6 on the WTA rankings when they come out on Monday, just one spot off of the career-high No. 5 she achieved after Wimbledon last year.

And speaking of ranking jumps, Chwalinska’s will be shockingly big—the 24-year-old Pole is projected to rise from No. 114 all the way up to No. 21 next Monday, shattering her previous personal best of No. 113 to not only make her Top 100 debut, but also her Top 50, Top 40 and Top 30 debuts.

Last but not least, Andreeva is projected to rise from No. 5 to No. 1 on the Race to the WTA Finals leaderboard, which are the year-to-date standings, passing the two players who had largely been dominating the season up until the clay-court season, Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina.