Sawangkaew advances at Wimbledon after Chwalinska suffers slip on match point

LONDON -- An ill-timed injury and a valiant opponent led to the first major upset of Wimbledon 2026 as qualifier Mananchaya Sawangkaew saved one match point to defeat No. 20 seed Maja Chwalinska 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 in 2 hours and 41 minutes.

Roland Garros finalist Chwalinska, playing her first grass-court match of the season, was a point away from victory at 6-2, 5-2 -- but slipped on the grass behind the baseline, allowing Sawangkaew to put away a volley winner. The injury didn't initially seem serious, but Chwalinska required a medical timeout and treatment on her right leg after losing that game.

The next two games were also deuce nailbiters, but Sawangkaew managed to avoid facing another match point as she pegged Chwalinska back to 5-5. From that point on, Chwalinska's movement deteriorated rapidly as Sawangkaew wrapped up the second set. 

Though Chwalinska went up an early 2-0 break in the decider, the last six games of the match were one-way traffic for Sawangkaew. By the end, Chwalinska was barely able to push off on her right leg on either serve or return.

"I fell, and I felt my ankle," Chwalinska told the press afterwards. "I wanted to continue, but I felt some -- I mean, I didn't feel comfortable moving, so I wanted to tape it. But, you know, 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."

Sawangkaew also noticed the slip, but had to avoid over-thinking about Chwalinska's physical state.

"I tried to focus myself on that time mostly," she said. "Because my coach always tell me, 'Just focus on yourself first.' Then I have control a lot in my mind and a lot of what I have to do. So I just mostly focus on myself, just still fight every ball the same."

No. 164-ranked Sawangkaew, who also saved three match points in her final qualifying round to defeat Oceane Dodin 5-7, 7-5, 6-1, scored her first Grand Slam main-draw win and her first victory over a Top 30 opponent. The Thai made her Grand Slam main-draw debut at the Australian Open in January after being sidelined for six months last year due to a back injury she sustained at Roland Garros.

Sawangkaew is the first Thai player to win a match at Wimbledon since Luksika Kumkhum reached the second round in 2018. The 23-year-old fron Sing Buri is one of two Thai women in this year's main draw, a joint Open Era record. Should Lanlana Tararudee win her opener against Lilli Tagger to join Sawangkaew, it will mark the first time that two Thai women have reached the second round of any Grand Slam.

Entertaining tilt ends unfortunately: Ahead of the tournament, the question hanging over Chwalinska was whether she would be able to translate her clay-court game to grass. For a set-and-a-half, the answer was an emphatic yes.

Eschewing the high topspin forehands that served her so well in Paris, Chwalinska instead utilized a biting slice that barely bounced and sharp angles to pull Sawangkaew off the court. The drop shot that had delighted the Roland Garros crowd and flummoxed her opponents proved just as effective on grass, and Chwalinska's confidence was evident in her willingness to finish points at net and her superior play on big points. As she saved triple break point to hold for 5-2 in the second set -- a game in which she conjured drop shots, counter-drop shots and lobs -- a sea of Polish flags on Court 12 appeared poised to celebrate her passage into the second round.

Even at that point, though, the contest was closer than the scoreline suggested. Sawangkaew had been slow out of the blocks, falling behind 5-0 in under 20 minutes, but once she got a foothold was able to show off her own grass-court prowess.

With a biting slice of her own, enough speed to track down even some of Chwalinska's best drop shots and some swashbuckling net play, Sawangkaew was only let down by cheap errors on important points.

"I play like this because I'm so small," Sawangkaew explained. "So only way I have to take the ball early, and then finish the point, like, early. Because I'm so small, I cannot have the big serve or something like that. The only thing I can do is take the ball early, and then fight every ball best I can."

When the pair were playing their best, the rallies were enthralling. But once Chwalinska's movement, one of the cornerstones of her game, began to disappear, so did the contest's competitiveness.