The unprecedented final

This tournament blew everything up from day one. Rybakina, Gauff, Świątek, Sabalenka, Kostyuk. One by one, the favorites fell, and two players emerged from this chaos with a legitimacy no one can dispute today. Mirra Andreeva, 19 years old, right-handed, and Maja Chwalinska, 24 years old, left-handed. Consistency versus the fairy tale.

Maja Chwalinska has written the most improbable story of the fortnight. Having entered the main draw through qualifying, ranked 114th in the world when she hit her first ball in Paris, she leaves as a finalist and already at least 21st in the world. She beat Zheng, Mertens, Sakkari, Parry, Kalinskaya, Shnaider. Nine matches, a single set lost over the whole fortnight. On Thursday in the semi-final, under the closed roof of Chatrier because of the rain, she offered the crowd a tennis lesson that delighted the schoolchildren in the stands: drop shots, lobs, backhand slices, a wrong-footing volley at 2–4 in the tie-break to flip everything around and reel off five points in a row. Half as many unforced errors as Shnaider, 17 compared to 36. Shnaider herself admitted after the match: "Even when you think you've won the point, she's still there." She is only the second qualifier in history to reach a Grand Slam final after Emma Raducanu at the 2021 US Open. After the match, she still didn’t have the words: "It's a dream. I don't know what's happening. I try to stay calm because it helps me play my best tennis, but inside me, there's a storm."

Mirra Andreeva also had a lightning-fast semi-final, 6–1 6–3 in 1h16 against an unrecognizable Kostyuk. The 19-year-old Russian leads the tour with 35 wins this season, including 21 on clay. She is playing her first Grand Slam final with the calm of a player who always knew this moment would come. After her win over Kostyuk, she turned to her coach in the stands: "We agree we’re not changing anything for the final, right?" The coach in question is Conchita Martinez, Roland-Garros finalist in 2000, beaten by Mary Pierce on this same court twenty-six years ago. She didn’t miss a second of Chwalinska’s semi-final on Thursday, sitting in the stands analyzing every slice, every drop shot, every variation. The data, the preparation, the game plan against a left-hander her player has never faced. Andreeva admitted matter-of-factly: "I’ve never played against her. I don’t know her well. We’ll see." The ultimate variety against the most solid defense on tour, and a coach who carries within her the memory of the only Roland-Garros final she failed to win. This match has a soul.