When Maja Chwalinska walked onto the qualifying courts at Roland Garros a fortnight ago, three wins away from even reaching the main draw, a place in the final was not part of any realistic conversation for the world No. 114. Albeit on Thursday evening on the Philippe-Chatrier, she beat 25th seed Diana Shnaider 7-6(4), 6-4, completing one of the most improbable runs in modern Grand Slam history. The tennis world was watching. Within hours, Venus Williams and Patrick McEnroe weighed in.

Venus Williams, speaking on the TNT broadcast, went one step further. She announced that she’d chosen Chwalinska as her favorite and carefully stated her reasons in a witty manner. 

“I have to pick the person who is least likely, because this is the way it is the last two weeks,” Williams said, referencing the chaos that has defined this year’s draw. “I felt so happy to see this moment. She’s come such a long way, and it really is a Cinderella story.”

Patrick McEnroe, the former doubles world No. 1 and now one of the sport’s most prominent voices, was unrestrained in his reaction. “Absolutely incredible. The qualifier from Poland, Maja Chwalinska, is into the Roland Garros final. You just gotta love it. Court craft, feel, guile, guts. Unreal,” he wrote.

Maja Chwalinska, in the 10 days in Paris, has won each of her nine matches, including the qualifying round and the main draw stages, losing only one set to Maria Sakkari in the third round. She had never beaten a top-50 opponent before this tournament. She has now beaten four in a row, Elise Mertens, Sakkari, Anna Kalinskaya and Shnaider, along with Olympic gold medallist Zheng Qinwen in the opening week. 

The historical context is equally extraordinary. She is only the third player in the Open Era to reach her maiden WTA-level final at a Grand Slam, joining Venus Williams at the 1997 US Open and Emma Raducanu at the 2021 US Open. Among players making their main-draw debut at the French Open, she is only the third in the Open Era to reach the final on that debut, after Evonne Goolagong in 1971 and Chris Evert in 1973. The company she’s got is a reflection of what she has given in the past two weeks. 

Chwalinska will leave Paris ranked no worse than No. 21 in the world when the new rankings are published on Monday, a jump of more than 90 places from where she started the tournament. Venus Williams called it a Cinderella story. The numbers indicate it’s something more unusual than that.