Maja Chwalinska is enjoying the best fortnight of her professional career and has already made history with her incredible run to the final in Paris.
Prior to the 2026 French Open, the Pole had only recorded one Grand Slam main draw victory - a straight sets success against Katerina Siniakova at Wimbledon in 2022.
The world number 114 had also only ever won two tour-level matches on clay prior to arriving in the French capital, but Chwalinska has become one of the stories of the tournament with a string of impressive performances.
A first round victory over Olympic gold medallist Qinwen Zheng was followed up by triumphs against number 23 seed Elise Mertens, Maria Sakkari and home favourite Diane Parry to reach the quarter-finals.
With a 7-6 6-3 victory over number 22 seed Anna Kalinskaya, the 24-year-old then became the sixth female qualifier in the Open era to reach a Grand Slam semi-final.
Not done there, Chwalinska continued her dream run and moved to within one victory of a fairytale triumph as she beat 25th seed Diana Shnaider 7-6 6-4.
The Pole will now play Mirra Andreeva for the chance to cement her place in tennis history forever.
Has a qualifier ever won a Grand Slam singles title in tennis?
While Chwalinska continues to rewrite the history books, only one qualifier has successfully gone on to win a major title.
Britain's Emma Raducanu incredibly shocked the tennis world by storming to the US Open title in 2021.
The 18-year-old broke a number of records on her way to securing an historic triumph at Flushing Meadows.
As well as being the fourth woman in the Open era to win a major as her first singles title, becoming the youngest Grand Slam champion for 17 years and the first British female to win a major since 1977, Raducanu incredibly achieved all of those records without dropping a set.
