Quick Served: Roland Garros Day 9
Plus: analyzing the Fonseca–Mensik matchup
Andy has never reviewed a match as fresh as Matteo Arnaldi’s comeback against Frances Tiafoe past midnight in Paris today. We stopped recording when it went to a fifth set and came back with the raw reaction. Also: Matteo Berrettini’s brawl, Aryna Sabalenka’s perfect performance and picks for the tomorrow’s matches.
We’ll address Serena Williams’s comeback announcement in next week’s episodes. She will take the court again in less than 10 days. Suffice it to say:
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Magic Maja
As expected, there is a Polish woman in the quarterfinals dropping bagels and breadsticks on all of her opponents. But her name isn’t Iga Swiatek. It’s Maja Chwalinska.
The men’s draw may be chaotic, but the biggest underdog left is still this 24-year-old friend of Swiatek’s, ranked No. 114. She has come from qualifying to make the quarterfinals, winning 14 sets and dropping just one.
And it’s how she is winning them—two bagels and a breadstick, only four sets closer than 6-3. All with a funhouse of spins and carves, high forehands and off-pace madness, the most she can do with her 5'5" frame.
This is how much of a Cinderella story Chwalinska is: After her third-round win, she was worried about affording her mounting hotel bill.
“Well, I hope there are like, free places out there... Or I have enough money, you know? Because I know I earned a lot here, but it’s not coming right away, you know guys? Let’s see, pray for me.”
Oshee, a Polish sports drink brand that sponsors Swiatek, is now covering her and her mother’s bill.
In the first round, Chwalinska beat Zheng Qinwen, who, at the moment, isn’t the same player who won the Olympic gold medal in Paris. Then she backed it up with a quality 6-4, 6-0 win over Elise Mertens, the 23rd seed. Then the resurgent Maria Sakkari, who was leading the tournament in aces at the time, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Today, Chwalinska fended off Diane Parry and her French crowd and cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 win. In the quarterfinal, she will play Anna Kalinskaya [22] for the first time. Kalinskaya had a much tougher match today, beating Anastasia Potapova [28] 10-7 in the match tiebreak.
The semifinal is well within reach for Chwalinska. She is proving one of Andy’s mantras: Winning begets winning. She was 14–5 on clay coming into Roland Garros, including a small title in April.
“The goal was to be top 100, but now I want more.”
One name is coming to mind: Emma Raducanu. We always thought we’d never see another qualifier make a clean run to a major title after Raducanu did it at the 2021 US Open. But Chwalinska is six sets away. Weirder things have happened.
The Best of the Rest Recap
Sabalenka Serves Past Osaka
The 7-5, 6-3 battle was worthy of the night session. Osaka led the tournament in aces after the third round with 21, and Sabalenka had just three aces in her first three matches. Today, Sabalenka upped it to 12 and held Osaka to a pair. She was as good as the runaway favorite to win the title should be. She will play Diana Shnaider [25], who didn’t make a single error in the third set against Madison Keys [19].
Three Italian Men Avenge Sinner’s Honor
Jannik Sinner was supposed to be in the top half’s final four. Instead, it’s Flavio Cobolli [10], Matteo Arnaldi and Matteo Berrettini representing the boot. Arnaldi produced the match of the day. He was on the doorstep of defeat, trailing two breaks in the fourth set, 2-5, and Frances Tiafoe [19] was one game away from the quarterfinal. But Arnaldi just wouldn’t miss. He won a roller-coaster fifth set at 1:08 a.m., after five hours and 26 minutes.
🎤 Matteo Arnaldi
“I don’t know how I’m standing here, to be honest. I played so much this tournament. First match, four hours. Second, three and a half. Third, five hours. Today, five and a half. But we live to play these matches. I always dreamed to play a match here at Roland Garros at night, these battles, against someone like Frances. At one point, it wasn’t tennis. It was something else.”
Cobolli dropped his first set of the tournament in a four-set win over Zachary Svajda. And he almost blew the fourth set after holding a 5-1 lead and serving for the match twice. Afterward, he said the prospect of going five made him almost “shit my pants.” What’s nuts is that he’s not even the first person in the tournament to say that.
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Bracket Challenge Update
Zachary Svajda was all of our brackets today when he ran into the umpire’s chair.
Today’s bonus points:
Diana Shnaider, 6 points for seed differential
Matteo Arnaldi, 40 points for unseeded upset
7
Number of female qualifier quarterfinalists at Roland Garros this century
As incredible as Maja Chwalinska’s run is, it’s precedented. It happened twice in 2020 when Nadia Podoroska and Martina Trevisan had breakout performances. Podoroska made the semis, too, losing to Iga Swiatek.
The qualifier-to-quarterfinalist story isn’t as common at other Slams, but a few players have pulled it off. Here are the most recent.
Dayana Yastremska, 2024 Australian Open (semis)
Lulu Sun, 2024 Wimbledon
Arlan Karatsev, 2021 Australian Open (semis, and it was his debut Slam)
Emma Raducanu, 2021 US Open (title, the only qualifier to lift a Slam trophy)
Botic van de Zandschulp, 2021 US Open
Tiebreak Trivia
At 44, Serena would not be the oldest woman to win a main-draw WTA match, should her comeback prove successful in singles. Who holds the record?
💡 The answer will be in Day 10’s Quick Served newsletter.
Day 8 answer: Novak Djokovic and Garbiñe Muguruza won the titles in 2016, the last time Roland Garros crowned two new champions in the same year.
Quick Hits
Best celeb sighting today: top NBA draft prospect AJ Dybantsa at his buddy Frances Tiafoe’s match.
Tournament director Amelie Mauresmo addressed the controversial line call in the Casper Ruud–João Fonseca match Sunday. Mark her words.
Adolfo Daniel Vallejo was fined $65,000 for his comments about female umpires after his second-round loss. That was half of his prize money.
In case you weren’t on Earth today ⬇️
🍿 Day 10 Matches
Alexander Zverev [2] vs. Rafael Jodar [27]
Elina Svitolina [7] vs. Marta Kostyuk [15]
Mirra Andreeva [8] vs. Sorana Cirstea [18]
Jakub Mensik [26] vs. Joao Fonseca [28]
Join us in the Substack chat at the start of the day session!
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