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Chwalinska chats hard courts, fanfare & more after Cincinnati debut CINCINNATI -- For the first time since her unexpected run to the Roland Garros final, Maja Chwalinska is back in the win column and it comes on her Cincinnati debut. With a straight sets win over Cristina Bucsa, Chwalinska is through to the third round at the Cincinnati Open. It's a win she's been looking for as she was eliminated in the first round of Wimbledon, suffering an ankle injury on match point. Then, after withdrawing from a couple tournaments, she lost in the second round of Toronto to begin the Hard-Court Swing on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz. "Overall I'm happy with how the recovery has gone, but it was definitely a process with some ups and downs," Chwalinska said to press in Cincinnati Saturday. "It was a bit frustrating because I had some good momentum going on. It's just tennis, it's sport, it's brutal sometimes. You gotta accept it and learn from it. I'm healthy now. "I'm very excited. It's a bit different game than clay, but I like hard courts too. I feel I just need some more matches under my belt and I will feel more confident on the court then." Matches, matches and more matches. That was a recurring theme in Chwalinska's press session Saturday. Injury recovery aside, Chwalinska hasn't played many tour-level hard-court matches. Prior to Toronto, the last time she competed on the surface at tour-level was a run to the quarterfinals at Cluj-Napoca in February. Before that, Merida in September 2024 was the last tour-level tournament on the surface. "I'm a player. I don't have big weapons and I won't serve 10 aces per match, winners and everything. So I'm a player and I need matches. I was injured, so I haven't had a lot of chances to play matches. And Toronto was an unpleasant experience [laughing], but it is what it is. "It's tennis, I knew coming in that it's going to be pretty challenging for me at the beginning. With every win, I'm very happy." Chwalinska's game, evident in her runner-up finish at Roland Garros, thrives on the clay courts. Her crafty, left-handed style with a variety of slices and drop shots was a difficult problem to solve for many opponents. Now, the Polish No. 2, with a top 25 ranking will have an upcoming tournament schedule that she hasn't experienced before, including direct entry to the US Open and the remaining WTA 1000 events in Beijing and Wuhan. Short-term, Chwalinska isn't setting any specific objectives that she wants to reach. Simply, she just wants to play more on the surface. "I need matches, really. It's all about matches for me because I trained a lot, and I worked really hard," Chwalinska said. "Now, it's all about the matches and just being as competitive as I can be and fight for every single ball. "I'm trying to get to the rhythm, and then we can talk about the goals ranking-wise, but it's just staying healthy and being as competitive. " Embracing the post-Roland Garros ensemble From the outside point of view, reaching the French Open final was an unexpected. For Chwalinska herself, it was also a magical run that saw the qualifier ranked No. 114 leave Paris in second place and a top 25 ranking. What came after was a unique experience of heightened attention and popularity. At times it was overwhelming, particularly when she was welcomed with a Polish crowd at the Warsaw airport upon arrival. At the same time, she was extremely appreciative of her new stardom. "Honestly, it was pure shock for me," Chwalinska said. "I didn't expect it. I was in a bubble in Paris, and I didn't really know how many people were following the story. It was really shocking for me, and I was really overwhelmed, but also very grateful." After, Chwalinska enjoyed a brief escape to Greece with her friends to get away from the spotlight, but it was back into the routine of the tour from there on. "It was challenging because it was a new situation with much more attention from outside, and I felt pressure for sure that I've never felt before. For my team, it was also new. They've never experienced it before. "It was just an experience that we had to go through. But we went through it, we learned from it, and we're happy to be here in Cincinnati."