Roland Garros’ Finalist Maja Chwalinska Not Sure of Getting a Wildcard for the Wimbledon Championships

Maja Chwalinska has revealed that she will skip the entire grass-court lead-up and play only the Wimbledon Championships this year. However, the Roland Garros runner-up has an issue: her place in the Wimbledon draw is not yet guaranteed, despite the fortnight that has transformed her ranking.

Chwalinska arrived in Paris ranked World No.114 but will leave the city with a new career-high ranking of No.21. Nonetheless, the complications of her ranking position are one of timing. Grand Slam tournaments, including Wimbledon, always release their main-draw entry list six weeks before the tournament begins.

The organizers have already done that and based the entry list on the rankings of May 18, with the cut falling around No.101. On that date, Chwalinska was still No. 114, outside the line, which meant she wasn’t on the entry list. However, her run at the Roland Garros came afterward, which is too late to count for a direct entry to the Wimbledon main draw.

Her new ranking of World No.21, which will be updated on Monday (June 8), would have comfortably cleared any cutoff, but the list that governs her place was frozen before her surge at the Roland Garros. This now leaves her with just three ways of getting into the main draw. One of them is a wild card from the organizers.

Another is playing the qualifying rounds, and the last is being called up to draw after a late withdrawal from a player in the main draw. Either of these options remains realistic for Chwalinska, but earning a wild card would be difficult. Addressing this issue after the Roland Garros final, she admitted that she would be surprised if she got a wildcard for Wimbledon:

I’m not going to play anything before Wimbledon, that’s for sure… That would be the news of the century. Honestly, I don’t expect it, but we’ll see. I will take it as a challenge; it’s a new surface. I don’t have much time, but I will give my all, and we’ll see what happens, but I am excited. Grass is always a pleasant change.

Wimbledon often gives British home-based players wildcards to help them gain experience on tour, while keeping a few slots for former Grand Slam champions. There’s a growing possibility that Venus and Serena Williams might get some of the few remaining wild cards, while Chwalinska will be forced to play in the qualifying rounds.

Maja Chwalinska refuses to blame fatigue for her French Open final loss

Maja Chwalinska broke Mirra Andreeva in the fourth game to tie the Roland Garros final match 2-2 and then served to take the tie 3-2 before things began to collapse. The Polish star looked fatigued just a few minutes into the match, and that gave Andreeva the momentum to win nine consecutive games.

Andreeva won the match 6-3, 6-2 on Saturday (June 6), winning her maiden Grand Slam. But Chwalinska had nine matches as a qualifier before the Roland Garros final, which made her tired on the Court Philippe-Chatrier. However, she refused to blame her loss on fatigue, stressing that Andreeva deserved to win the title:

Obviously, I was tired, but it’s normal; I think anyone would be. We play a lot of matches, but all credit to Mirra because she is an incredible player, very solid. She handled the conditions much better than I did, so she deserved to win completely today. I did everything I had been doing for the past three weeks, but there were definitely nerves. I was very stressed, even though, honestly, I was nervous before every match.

Chwalinska’s career has completely changed on tour. The Polish star is ranked World No.21 in the WTA Live Rankings, which will be published on Monday (June 8). But apart from that, she is likely to maintain her place in the top 30, as she will now be playing in tour-level events rather than ITF and WTA 124 tournaments, as she did throughout last year.

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