Maja Chwalińska was due to face Maria Sakkari at 11:00 on Thursday at Roland Garros, with a place in the fourth round on the line. The match gives the Polish player another immediate chance to turn a Paris run that has already drawn attention into something bigger.
Jaroslav Machovsky was plainly buoyed by what he has seen from Chwalińska in the tournament so far. “No tak, jestem bardzo szczęśliwy,” he said, adding that he was pleased with how she had handled herself and that she plays “very intelligent tennis.”
That is the reason her progress has stood out in Paris. Machovsky said he had not seen many players who read the game as well as Chwalińska, and he argued that her style is different from what most of the tour offers. “W takim stylu, jak Maja, nie gra 99 procent zawodniczek w tourze,” he said, a line that fits the way she has been described throughout this event: fine, clever, patient and difficult to box in.
The coach also put a limit on the optimism. Chwalińska can compete with the best, he said, but she is physically smaller than many of the stronger women on tour and her game needs especially careful preparation. He said she has added strength since last year and noted that Maciej Ryszczuk has helped her physically and sharpened that preparation. “Dawno nie widziałem kogoś, kto tak mądrze gra,” he said of her game, but smart tennis alone is rarely enough at this level.
The meeting with Sakkari carries its own recent history. Machovsky said the two played a longer match last year, one Chwalińska lost in three sets, and that makes this rematch more than a routine second-week assignment. Chwalińska herself hinted at the same logic after beating Elise Mertens, saying she probably would not have taken such a risk at a tournament of another level. “Jednak gdzie ryzykować, jak nie na Wielkim Szlemie?” she said.
That is the edge of the story now. Roland Garros asks players to recover and reset every two days, and Chwalińska’s unusual style has already carried her past one difficult test. The next one arrives at 11:00 against Sakkari, and it will show whether the added strength, the sharper preparation and the same fearless decisions can carry her into the fourth round.
