(June 6, 2026) Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva and world No. ended the run of Polish qualifier Maja Chwalinska in the Roland Garros final on Saturday, 6-3, 6-2 in 82 minutes to win her first major tournament.
The 19-year-old Andreeva first burst onto the tennis scene at 15 and on Saturday lived up to all the hype and promise in dominant fashion.
She admitted that she outfought her mental demons and her stubbornness.
“I know I can be a tough cookie sometimes and it’s pretty hard to put up with me,” Andreeva said.
“I’ve done a lot of visualizations before. Not just this tournament, but I’ve had dreams, I’ve had a lot of thoughts on how it’s going to happen, if it’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen, where,” Andreeva said. “The feeling in real life is so much better than in your dreams.
“I can call myself a Grand Slam champion,” she said.
“Her attitude is difficult,” said Conchita Martinez, Andreeva’s coach and a former Wimbledon champion. “You tell her something, and maybe she’s not open to listening. … When she works hard and when she listens and she does everything, she has no limits.”
Andreeva became the youngest woman to win the French Open since Monica Seles was 18 when she three-peated the French Open in 1992.
“You’re so young and talented. It’s so annoying,” the 24-year-old Chwalinska told Andreeva.
As is her wont, Andreeva thanked herself “for believing in myself, always giving my 100%, even when it’s tough, trying every day to be better as a person and as a player, believing that I can do this, fighting so many demons inside of me.
“Only I know how tough it was for me,” Andreeva added.
Chwalinska was attempting to become the first qualifier to capture the Roland Garros title. She opened up about her depression, admitting that she’s been suffering with it for five years.
“Tennis is such a tough sport. It’s so individual. We start so early. We are basically kids when we start,” Chwalinska said. “People are expecting that we are going to behave like adults already and we are just kids really. So the pressure is huge.”
At one point Andreeva won nine straight games to take a 6-3, 5-0 lead in the match, fighting the wind all the way.
“She definitely handled wind much better than me,” Chwalinska said. “She was not running away from the ball.”
“I felt like I have no weapon against her today. She definitely handled the wind much better than me, and she played so smart,” she said.
“I’ve tried my best, I’m sorry,” Chwalińska told the crowd.
PARIS, FRANCE – JUNE 06: Mirra Andreeva and Maja Chwalinska of Poland pose after the women’s final singles match on day 14 of the French Open tennis tournament on Court Philippe-Chatrier at the Roland-Garros Complex in Paris, France on June 6, 2026. (Photo by Burak Akbulut/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“I couldn’t understand at some point which way the wind was going,” Andreeva said. “I’m just happy that I’ve dealt with these conditions and adjusted to the conditions maybe a little bit faster than she did.”
“I’ll never forget these three weeks, for sure,” said the woman from Poland. The experience will do wonders for her confidence against the big names she will meet more of. “Because I’ve never really played against the high-ranked players before. It was the very first time that I faced them.”
Chwalińksa’s ranking will move up from 114 to 21 on Monday. Her career prize money heading into Roland Garros was $864,030. She’s now tripled it by reaching the final.
For Andreeva, this is the sixth singles title of her career, which now includes titles at every level from the 250-level and up.
