Chwalinska, a point from a Wimbledon win, turned her ankle and lost

One point. That is how close Maja Chwalinska came to a first-round win at Wimbledon, a month after she reached the Roland Garros final, before her ankle gave way and the match turned. Mananchaya Sawangkaew, the world No. 164 from Thailand, came back to win 2-6 7-5 6-2.

Chwalinska had taken the first set 6-2 and stood a point from the match in the second when she turned her ankle. From there the 24-year-old Pole could no longer push off the leg or play full out, and the win she had all but secured slipped away. Sawangkaew, a point from defeat, took the last two sets 7-5 6-2 to reach the second round.

The exit stung because of where Chwalinska had just been. In May she came through qualifying at Roland Garros and did not stop: she beat Qinwen Zheng and Elise Mertens, came from a set down past Maria Sakkari, then accounted for Diane Parry, Anna Kalinskaya and Diana Shnaider to reach the final. There Mirra Andreeva beat her 6-3 6-2, but the run carried her from 114th in the world to 21st, a climb of more than ninety places.

The collapse from the brink rhymed with the men’s draw at that same Roland Garros, where Jannik Sinner led Juan Manuel Cerundolo by two sets to love in the second round, then faded and lost the last three 7-5 6-1 6-1, out of a tournament he had seemed to control. Sinner ran out of energy rather than turning an ankle, but the shape was the same: a player all but through, undone in sight of the line.

Match tale, 29 June 2026, sources: The Championships, Wimbledon; NOS