Life after Roland Garros: How Chwalinska embraced the tough moments and won in Wuhan

WUHAN -- For Maja Chwalinska, the pressure of reaching the Roland Garros final came after the tournament ended. Her run from qualifying elevated her from No. 114 to No. 21 and brought a level of attention she found difficult to manage.

“Miserable” is how she described feeling during the North American Hard-Court swing, when expectations from social media, the press and elsewhere began to weigh on her. After injuring herself on match point in a first-round loss at Wimbledon, she won just one match before another first-round exit at the US Open.

"It was very tough for me," Chwalinska told wtatennis.com after winning Wuhan on Sunday. "It's just such a different world for me now. Tennis stays the same, but off court it's just so much different. Great things are happening, but also it's just different with the attention, with the media. Everyone can speak and it's very challenging."

After taking time to adjust to the attention and refocusing on tennis, she began to feel better in Singapore, she said. The Asian swing proved a welcome reset for the new No. 11 in the PIF WTA Rankings, who is 9-2 since arriving on the continent.

A few weeks after reaching the Singapore semifinals, she won the Dongfeng • Voyah Wuhan Open, adding a WTA 1000 title to her breakthrough season.

The Wuhan title reinforced what Chwalinska began to believe at Roland Garros: She can compete with the world’s best on any surface. After a difficult summer, she has found her footing again and is adding to a season on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz that began with a more modest goal -- cracking the top 100.

"I'm just a human," Chwalinska said to press. "So I needed to admit [after French Open] was very tough for me, but I kept working really hard. I'm just very grateful that my work paid off today."

After the final, Chwalinska sat down with wtatennis.com to discuss her belief in herself and her journey in Wuhan. Here's more from that conversation:

You said Roland Garros gave you belief. When you were outside the Top 140 earlier this year, how hard was it to trust that your game could take you this far?

Chwalinska: It's very individual, but for me, it was more about my game style. I wasn't sure if my game can compete against the best of the world because it's not very common. I think that was the biggest question mark for me.

I know how much you enjoy the clay, but did winning Wuhan feel you proved your game also suits hard courts?

Chwalinska: I think so. 

I could hear the voices of others that I'm only good on clay, but I feel people sometimes are just trolls, and they just want to speak because no one listens to them, and they abort. It's tough because you're out there and you're just very vulnerable. You can say nothing back.

I'm definitely very happy that I proved to myself the most that I can play on every surface, can be very good and can win on every surface as well.

You're now ranked No. 11 in the world, and there's a lot of opportunity ahead of you with the remainder of this season and the start to 2027. How do you approach being in a great spot going forward?

Chwalinska: I feel my mentality won't change because it works for me. I just want to give my best, just want to win every single match and have no regrets. I just want to give my all.

If I win, it's great. If I lose, that's how it's supposed to be, I guess. I won't really think about the rankings at this moment, and honestly, I've never really been good with ranking goals. It doesn't really motivate me at all. I just try to focus on what I can improve in my game and also in myself.

In China, a lot of the fans like give players nicknames. Have you learned yours, and what do you think of it?

Chwalinska: Moon sister. Honestly, why not? [laughing]

After your semifinal against Iga Swiatek, an interview you did together at 15 in Stockholm resurfaced on social media. You talked then about conquering the tour. What was it like to see that interview again and reflect on how far you’ve come?

Chwalinska: It's very sweet. When you are a kid, you just dream about great things, and it's just very cool to see now what we've done. Obviously Iga has won everything and has dominated the tour for many years.

I'm not complaining. I know what my journey has been, and I'm very grateful for what I've done also.

It's a very cool story. We're the same age. We're from the same country. We've been basically playing tournaments together since we were 10 years old. I think it's not that common, especially from Poland. It's not a tennis country yet. Hopefully, it will change, but it's a great story for us and for our country as well.