Chwalinska proves Paris was no fluke

Catherine Whitaker (0:11)

Well, hello, and welcome to The Tennis Podcast. It is Sunday afternoon as we come to you here in the UK, recording a Monday pod on a Sunday, because tennis has had the good grace to have its finals on a Sunday.

We are so back.

And because tomorrow, Matt and I will be on the M40 on our way to Wrexham. How are you feeling, Matt? Are you Wrexham ready?

Matt Roberts (0:40)

As ready as I'll ever be. So let's go with yes.

Catherine Whitaker (0:45)

That's readier than me. I haven't made the sign yet.

I've brought all the raw materials for the sign. I'm very excited about buying crafts. But the actual doing the crafts, I'm stalling. Well, I'm not stalling. I'm here making a podcast. But yeah, I'm realizing I'm not very artistic and I'm in a very sort of all the gear and no idea situation.

Matt Roberts (1:12)

Well, I'm like that with my tennis. So we're very much together on that.

Catherine Whitaker (1:16)

I think it might be the most felt tip pens that any child-free adult has ever owned.

David Law (1:25)

Come on, you're pumped. Let's be honest.

Catherine Whitaker (1:27)

I am pumped. I'm pumped to own all those felt-tip pens. David, how are you doing?

David Law (1:33)

Very well. Very well. Thank you.

Slightly husky voice yesterday after shouting at 16 14-year-olds yesterday on a football field and we lost in the last minute. Then shouting at 11 plus 5 substitutes in an adults match when my beloved football team won in the last minute. So swings and roundabouts.

Catherine Whitaker (1:58)

You're calling West Bournemouth Chaldeum Albion adult and your local kids, the kids' version, right? Yes. Matt's done very well to not mention Fulham, hasn't he?

David Law (2:12)

Yeah. You'd think he'd be taking any chance he could get at the moment.

Catherine Whitaker (2:16)

I saw him on Fridays. We had lunch on Friday with our mate Dave and he said, could you make a two-sided sign, one sign saying, go Matt, and the other sign saying, are below or out? Given it's going to be on iPlayer, let's pump this message far and wide. 24 hours later, a scraped one-nil win against Hull with 10 men, and the are below or out sign plan is out.

Matt Roberts (2:47)

No, it wasn't a scraped one-nil win.

It was a dominant free-flowing one-nil win. And you can't sack your manager after that. We finally looked good for 90 minutes. So ask me next weekend when we've lost a Coventry and the are below or out sign might be back in. But for now, got to stick with it.

Catherine Whitaker (3:08)

Well, look, Matt, I'm still going to have felt-tip pens next weekend. Yeah.

Probably going to have enough felt-tip pen for the rest of my life. Let's get into the tennis, shall we? Let's start in Wuhan. And a 1000 title for French Open Finalist, a woman that we had barely heard of six months ago, Maja Chwalinska. She beat Sonay Kartal in a, well, a surprise final, let's be honest, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2. Her first WTA title. It moves her to world number 11, and the final run moves Sonay Kartal back into the top 50 And this is in just her third tournament back. After a 6-month layoff with a back injury.

David, you were monitoring the charge of Maja Chwalinska right from the start of Wuhan. If anybody saw this coming, it's you.

David Law (4:06)

Yeah, I mean, I did say that Sabalen could win the tournament because she lost in the first round, but still, thank you for that, Catherine. I mean, look, I think, I think I certainly, I saw her play the week before and just thought, okay, Maja Chwalinska is through this slump post French Open, which I mean, look, it's not like she was setting the world on fire in terms of her results before the French Open, but I think once we'd seen what she was capable of and when she'd seen it, I thought that we would get more results since then. And she was quite candid about having struggled with the aftermath of that Roland Garros and all the things that you then have to do and all these eyes on you. She's clearly not somebody who absolutely adores being, maybe she likes being the center of attention on the court, the way she sort of crafts her game and the response she gets to it, but I don't get the sense that she absolutely loves the kind of milling around that you get when you're famous of just coming out your door, you know.

And she's had injuries as well. She obviously had that unfortunate injury at Wimbledon. But seeing her a couple of weeks ago, I thought, and the manner of her scoreline, she was absolutely destroying players. And I thought, wow, here's the player who's arrived in Asia and is fresh and ready to go again, you know, and is not hanging on, and is going to make the most of this.