Fifth seed Maja Chwalinska swept into the Singapore Tennis Open semifinals on the indoor hard courts, dismissing defending champion Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-2 to claim her first victory over a Top 20 player.
The match
Chwalinska has surrendered only 11 games across her first three matches in Singapore, and her quarterfinal against the fourth-seeded Mertens was her most emphatic result of the week. The 24-year-old Pole reached her second tour-level semifinal and her first since her surprise run, as a qualifier, to the Roland Garros final in June.
Mertens had received a first-round bye and then advanced when Barbora Krejcikova withdrew from their second-round meeting, leaving the Belgian to play her opening match of the tournament against an opponent already in full rhythm.
The Belgian began brightly, looking to shorten points and move forward to the net. She was level at 2-2 in the opening set, but Chwalinska gradually took control with a changing diet of sliced balls, heavy topspin, flatter drives, drop shots and lobs.
From 2-2, Chwalinska won seven games in succession and took nine of the next 10 to establish a 5-1 lead in the second set. Mertens finished with 40 unforced errors as she struggled to find a reliable pattern against the Pole’s variety.
Chwalinska’s serving gave Mertens little room to recover. She won 70% of points behind her first serve and 60% on second serve, not facing a break point until the next-to-last game. Mertens finally broke serve there, but Chwalinska immediately answered by breaking back to finish the contest.
The final game included the standout rally of the afternoon, with Chwalinska combining a drop shot, lob and forehand pass to close in on victory. It echoed her 6-4, 6-0 win over Mertens in the second round at Roland Garros, where Chwalinska also beat Anna Kalinskaya and Diana Shnaider, then ranked from No. 21 to No. 24.
“You cannot be at your best every week,” Chwalinska said after the match. “You have to keep working, stay consistent and be patient. I’m glad I was patient and kept putting in the work. After some difficult weeks, this feels especially good.”
The next round
Chwalinska will face either top seed Mirra Andreeva or No. 6 seed Leylah Fernandez in the semifinals. A meeting with Andreeva would reprise the Roland Garros final, while Fernandez would be a first-time opponent for Chwalinska.
