Roland Garros will crown a first-time Grand Slam women’s singles champion this weekend after 19-year-old Mirra Andreeva and Polish qualifier Maja Chwalińska won Thursday’s semifinals, capping one of the most unpredictable tournaments in recent memory at the French Open.
Andreeva, the No. 8 seed, dismantled Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk 6-1, 6-3 on Court Philippe-Chatrier, ending a 17-match winning streak that had carried the 15th seed to clay-court titles in Rouen and Madrid this season. The win — Andreeva’s first in three career meetings with Kostyuk — sends the Russian teenager to her first major final.
She is the third-youngest woman to reach a Roland Garros final this century, behind only Coco Gauff (18, in 2022) and Kim Clijsters (17, in 2001). The two players did not shake hands at the net, in keeping with the stance Ukrainian players have taken toward opponents from Russia and Belarus.
In the second semifinal, the story belonged to Chwalińska, the world No. 114 who has authored the run of the tournament. The 24-year-old beat No. 25 seed Diana Shnaider 7-6 (4), 6-4 to become the first qualifier ever to reach the Roland Garros final — and only the second qualifier to reach a Grand Slam final in the Open Era, after Emma Raducanu at the 2021 US Open.
It was Chwalińska’s ninth match in 18 days, a stretch that began in qualifying. She took the opening set in a tiebreak, then pulled clear after Shnaider called a medical timeout to have her back examined while trailing 4-3 in the second.
Shnaider arrived in the last four as a giant-killer in her own right, having stunned world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinals. That result was one of several that reshaped the draw: defending champion Coco Gauff fell in the third round to Anastasia Potapova, and four-time champion Iga Świątek did not reach the quarterfinals. With the headline names gone, Saturday’s final will pit two players contesting a major championship match for the first time.
There was no Latin American presence in the final four, but the region had its moments earlier in the fortnight. Argentina’s Solana Sierra announced herself with a commanding win over Raducanu en route to the third round, while Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia — the highest-profile woman in the regional game and a 2023 Roland Garros semifinalist — exited in the opening round. For Latin American fans, Saturday offers a different kind of appeal: two underdogs, no overwhelming favorite, and a guaranteed first-time Grand Slam champion.
The women’s final is set for Saturday, June 6, on Court Philippe-Chatrier. ESPN and Disney+ (Plan Premium) hold the broadcast rights across Latin America, including Costa Rica. The match traditionally begins around 3 p.m. in Paris — roughly 7 a.m. in Costa Rica — though fans should confirm the exact start against the official order of play once it is published.
