“Free”: A small tattoo on Maja Chwalinska’s left hand that could easily go unnoticed. Entering the French Open this season as a qualifier, she too expected to go unnoticed. But as she stood in front of the press after her win over Diana Shnaider on Thursday, her wildest dreams came true. The 24-year-old scripted history by becoming the first-ever qualifier to play in the final of Roland Garros.

And this time, not just she, but her tattoo also became the centre of attraction. However, upon asking what it signified, the Pole was hesitant to reveal the meaning behind it.

“I will keep it to myself. You can make your own stories,” she said during her post-match press conference on June 4, 2026. “I have a couple of tattoos. I have tiny ones so they’re not very visible. This one I feel like, three years ago maybe.”

Chwalinska does have multiple other tattoos, but not much is known about them either. On top of this, they aren’t even visible during the matches. The tattoo on the Pole’s left hand appears to have a deeper meaning, as her life was pretty different five years ago.

At just 19 years of age, Chwalinska took an indefinite break from tennis after her first-round qualifying defeat at the 2021 Wimbledon. She had been battling depression since 2019, and it had started to take a serious toll on her after two years. Back in 2022, she had even admitted about associating the sport with “pressure, stress and crying.”

Chwalinska had to return to her home and see a specialist in order to heal herself. Surrounded by her family and close friends, she realized that there are a lot of people who care about her. Then, after almost a year of hiatus, Chwalinska found her way back to the courts. As her tattoo says, she was finally ‘free’ from the mental struggles that had affected her for years.

After being eliminated from the qualifiers in 2021, she made it to her first-ever Grand Slam main draw at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships. She even triumphed in her first-round clash against Katerina Siniakova, which proved to be her debut on the WTA tour. However, she wasn’t able to go any further and fell in the second round to Alison Riske-Amritraj.

It was very hard for Chwalinska to find success on the WTA tour. Coming into this season’s Roland Garros, the 24-year-old had won just two WTA 125 singles titles and had missed every Grand Slam’s main draw since the 2025 Australian Open. Ranked No. 114, she wasn’t even expected to break into the top 100 anytime soon.

However, what has followed since then can very well be described as a miracle. Chwalinska has racked up a total of nine wins at the French Open so far and has even been quite dominant with her performances. Having lost just one set so far, an argument can be made about her being the best women’s player of the tournament so far.

Maja Chwalinska’s incredible run at the French Open

Chwalinska had begun her campaign with a comprehensive 6-0, 6-3 victory over Alice Rame in the first round of qualifying. Her next win would be even more impressive as she took out Carlo Monnet 6-0, 6-1. The Pole secured a place in the main draw with a 7-6, 7-5 win over Suzan Lamens.

Chwalinska then handed a ruthless 6-4, 6-0 defeat to Qinwen Zheng in the first round before defeating Elise Mertens with the same scoreline in her second match. She faced her first big test of the tournament against Maria Sakkari in the third round.

Despite losing the first, Chwalinska made a stunning comeback and kept her campaign going with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory. A comfortable 6-3, 6-2 win over Diane Parry followed before the underdog met Anna Kalinskaya in the quarterfinals. Chwalinska put in another brilliant performance and made her way to the semis with a 7-6, 6-3 victory.

Even though the Pole was in fantastic form, her French Open run was expected to end in the last 4 as she took on Diana Shnaider. The latter had reached the stage after defeating Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinals and was seen as the favorite to reach the final.

However, as she had done in the previous rounds, Chwalinska once again made it look easy on the court and wrapped up the match in straight sets. She recorded a 7-6, 6-4 victory over Shnaider to become the first qualifier to reach a Roland Garros final. She is also just the second qualifier to make it to a Grand Slam final in the Open Era after Emma Raducanu, who had done so at the 2021 US Open.

Chwalinska is now set to take on Mirra Andreeva in the French Open final that will be held on Saturday. The two have never met each other in a tour-level match before, so no one really knows what to expect. Though Andreeva will be the favorite due to her significantly higher ranking, defying the odds is not a new thing for Chwalinska, and she will be aiming to do so again in the penultimate match.