Maja Chwalinska’s French Open fairytale turned into a Wimbledon nightmare after the Roland Garros runner-up was knocked out in the first round by Thai qualifier Mananchaya Sawangkaew.
Last month, Chwalinska made history by becoming the first play to advance to the French Open final as a qualifier, losing to Mirra Andreeva while ranked as the world No 114 in Paris.
Due to Chwalinska’s historic run coming after the direct cut-off for Wimbledon, the Polish player was in the extremely rare position of requiring a wildcard but entering the singles draw as the 20th seed.
However, the 24-year-old crashed down to earth as she lost 2-6 7-5 6-2 to the Thai qualifier Sawangkaew, who is ranked 164th in the world. Chwalinska took a medical timeout after slipping and hurting her ankle on match point, which came in the second set. Her movement was limited after slipping on the grass and turning her foot.
“I'm definitely very disappointed. I was one point from winning the match.,” Chwalinska said. “It's a grand slam. It's tennis, it's sport, so I will lose many more like this, and I will hopefully win some like that.
“I fell, and I felt my ankle. I didn't feel comfortable moving, so I wanted to tape it. I would lose this point anyway, like it doesn't matter if I fell or not. It definitely didn't help me later on, but it is what it is.”
Just a month ago, Chwalinska became just the second player to make a grand slam final as a qualifier, after Emma Raducanu at the US Open in 2021.
Sawangkaew as making her Wimbledon debut and just appearance at a grand slam, following a first-round defeat to Raducanu at this year’s Australian Open.
“Today when I got on court, I just thought, okay, I'm going to give as much as I can,” Sawangkaew said. “Then I get down match point, and was, like, okay, the match not done yet, I just have to fight until the end. So I just run every ball, catch every ball that I can, and then result is good.”
One of the revelations of Chwalinska’s run from qualifying to the French Open final was that she kept having to extend her hotel stay as she advanced through the tournament. Sawangkaew said she also had to rebook her hotel after getting through qualifying.
“I just extended the hotel, because I didn't know I was gonna win,” she said. “Just, like, just day by day, I didn't know what's gonna happen. If I win, maybe I can extend more the hotel, just day by day.”
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