WTA Weekly: Chwalińska shows she is not a one-off with Wuhan title | Will Swiatek miss out on WTA Finals? How far will Eala go in Ningbo? WTA Osaka draw analysis

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My name is Clara Tausson, and I'm a friend of the show. I am Francisco George, and I'm a friend of the show.

John Silk (0:13)

Perfect.

Nick (0:14)

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Nick (0:21)

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Nick (0:26)

Boom.

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John Silk (0:49)

Play.

Good afternoon. Good evening. Good morning. Whatever time it is in the world, wherever you are tuning in from, the Asian swing is quite literally in full swing right now, and most people watching tennis in that part of the world will be very much asleep, at least I hope so, if you're a player. Maybe Maja Chwalińska is somewhere painting the town red, although probably given her professionalism, maybe not. That's probably just how I would be if I was on the tour, which probably also explains one of many reasons why I'm not Nick.

Nick (1:32)

Yes. Sounds like you probably fit much better into the England cricket team, John.

Yeah.

John Silk (1:37)

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Both past and present. Oh, Nick, I didn't know you're a cricket fan, or you're just aware at least of some of the antics of the England team.

Nick (1:46)

It's very hard not to be aware of what's going on.

I'm a general sports fan, John. I see sport, I watch it, but I wouldn't say I follow cricket religiously in any sense of the word. But if someone puts the cricket on, I will not be bored to tears.

John Silk (2:06)

The ashes, I always get into the ashes myself. Yeah.

Nick (2:11)

What English person doesn't at least want the England cricket team to win the ashes? Yeah.

SPEAKER_1 (2:15)

Regardless of anything of cricket.

John Silk (2:17)

Yeah, indeed. It doesn't happen very often these days.

Well, let's talk about rarities to some extent, or even a large extent in Maja Chwalińska's case. I mean, it's her first WTA 1000 title. I'm guessing it's her first title of any description.

Nick (2:37)

Well, on the WTA Tour maybe, I'm pretty sure she's won ITS.

John Silk (2:41)

Oh, ITS, yeah. Sorry. But I mean, main tour 250 and above. I just-

Nick (2:44)

Yeah, I don't believe she's won a main tour. Yes, because it was like she never won a main tour title. That's why one of the reasons why the Rowan Goweth's title was such a final run was such a big moment was this. It was more or less from nowhere results wise. If anything, she's backed that up now because I think a lot of it was like, okay, so her year is going to be defined by that Rowan Goweth's past violence still is to a certain extent, but this result proves it wasn't a fluke and she now has a proper WTA title under her belt.

I mean, we say it was a surprise. I'm pretty sure our dear friend Damien knew this was coming to some way, shape or form because he was always a big fan of hers.

John Silk (3:35)

Yes, he was.

Nick (3:38)

I'm sure that he would probably told you so whenever we mentioned her at this point.

John Silk (3:44)

Yeah, he definitely was. I think he wrote about her a couple of years ago, maybe a bit more, just being such a fun player.

Regarding what you were saying, in fact, that's really the framework of you can probably see from the episode title, and certainly the framework of my thinking is often these titles are. Because I thought, as incredible as that run was, she had at Roland Garros, I thought a few things. I thought we might be looking like a Boisson style situation where she seized the day, she seized the opportunity, she had the tournament of her life, and she went deeper than anyone could have possibly imagined. In Boisson's case, of course, it was the semifinals that she made last year, and in obviously Maja's case, it was the final.

But of course, it was Schneider in the semifinal, not Sabalenka, and of course, it was Miro Andreeva in that final, and it felt like it was always going to be sort of on Miro's racket at the very least. Plus it was clay. Then the grass court season gets underway. She gets injured having had a match point at Wimbledon. We didn't see her for quite some time. And I just thought that that game style that she has will be ideally suited to the clay, the depth that she has in terms of her court position, the wiliness, the slices and the dicing. Perhaps can work on a grass court to some extent, but less so in what I thought on a hard court. And I didn't see a 1000 title going her way this year at the very least, and maybe even ever. I just thought we would probably see Maja have a few clay court runs, maybe another French Open final, and would be that kind of player in a way, a sort of a Maja Sharif, but with a role on Gowers' final on her CV. But this has blown that thesis to smithereens.