A 24-year-old Polish tennis player arrived in Paris last week ranked 114th in the world, with no sponsors, no guaranteed income, and no certainty she could even pay for her hotel room.
She had to win three qualifying matches just to enter the French Open main draw. Prize money is only paid at the end of the tournament, so a Polish sports drink brand quietly stepped in and covered her hotel bill.
Her name is Maja Chwalinska. And today, she plays in the French Open final.
Before this tournament, she had won exactly one Grand Slam main draw match in her entire career. She had battled depression so severe that in 2021 she couldn't get out of bed. She underwent knee surgery in 2022. She spent years grinding through small tournaments across Europe just to stay afloat.
Then she arrived in Paris, won three qualifiers, and kept winning. Zheng Qinwen. Elise Mertens. Maria Sakkari. Diana Shnaider. Nine straight matches. One set dropped.
She is now the first qualifier in French Open history to reach the final. The last time a qualifier reached a Grand Slam final, it was Emma Raducanu at the 2021 US Open. Raducanu won.
By simply making the final, Chwalinska has earned more prize money than her entire career combined. The runner-up cheque alone is $1.6 million. If she wins today, she takes home $3.25 million.
One week ago she couldn't pay for her hotel room.
"Over the last year, the establishment survey shows payroll jobs up roughly 503,000, while the household survey shows employment down roughly 473,000."
503 - (-473)=-976K
Birth/Death +92K per month = +1104K per year -- excluded from household survey, included in NFP (payroll)
Does anyone have any ideas of what could be going on? /S
42 years ago today I made a surprising discovery that every year has been showing us more and more about the answer to life, the universe and everything...
https://t.co/z1uA3RyxYF
*US, IRAN MOU TO EXTEND CEASEFIRE, LAUNCH NUCLEAR TALKS: AXIOS
*US, IRAN REACH AGREEMENT ON 60-DAY MOU TO EXTEND TRUCE: AXIOS
Second week in a row just ahead of DOE weekly barrel count. Starting to sense a trend here.