“Like Jannik Sinner at Roland Garros”: Maja Chwalinska’s dramatic match at Wimbledon

What happened in the first-round match at the Wimbledon women’s tournament between Maja Chwalinska, the runner-up at Roland Garros, and Thailand’s Mananchaya Sawangkaew, ranked No. 164 in the WTA, was nothing short of sensational. Just as the match seemed to be drawing to a close, with the score at 6-2, 5-2 (30-40, Sawangkaew serving), Chwalinska landed awkwardly and slipped on the London grass, suffering an ankle sprain that sent her spiraling into a sporting abyss.

From that point on, in fact, her opponent rallied from behind, winning the set 7-5, and then went on to take the decisive third set 6-2, despite Chwalinska gritting her teeth the entire time, trying to avoid the worst. Among insiders, parallels were immediately drawn to what happened to Jannik Sinner in the second round of Roland Garros, when, on the verge of victory against Juan Manuel Cerundolo, the South Tyrolean was overwhelmed by a physical crisis triggered by the heat and was defeated in a comeback.

Maja Chwalinska had not played any official matches on grass since Roland Garros, having played (and lost) only one exhibition match against her compatriot Magda Linette at the Boodles Challenge in Stoke Park. Despite this, she was one of the most anticipated players at Wimbledon, and the start of her match against Sawangkaew had confirmed that she was in more than decent form—at least until the extremely unfortunate injury that effectively ended her run at the Championships.