Perth young gun blows French Open finalist off the court

Talia Gibson is back on track.

The hard-hitting 22-year-old from Perth upset 2026 Roland-Garros runner-up Maja Chwalińska 7-5, 6-1 at the Canadian Open on Wednesday (AEST) to set up a date with 16th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in the round-of-32.

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Gibson was the talk of Australian tennis in March when she claimed five top-20 scalps - including Naomi Osaka - in three dizzying, career-changing weeks in the United States.

But after climbing to a career-high world ranking of No.55, Gibson struggled on clay and grass, losing five straight matches against top-50 players.

Back on her preferred hard court in Toronto, Gibson overpowered No.18 seed Chwalińska, with the Polish star winning just three points on serve in the second set.

“Coming into this tournament, I just wanted to do my best to not put any pressure on myself around any results, but to find my way back into some good rhythm,” Gibson told the WTA.

“I was super happy to do that in the first round and backing it up today, it felt good that I was able to go out and produce some of my best tennis.”

The unorthodox Chwalińska went on a fairytale run as a qualifier in Paris before being outclassed in the final by Mirra Andreeva in June.

“She did extremely well at the French Open. I watched a fair bit, she did often go to the drop shot a lot and use a huge amount of the variation on the clay court,” Gibson said.

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“It was a little bit hard to tell because she hadn’t played a hard court match in a little while... if she was going to play differently on a hard court, or whether she was going to keep the same ways she was playing.

“Going into the match, I wanted to just be ready for anything, knowing that she likes to use a lot of variation in her game.

“I knew that I wasn’t going to be hit off the court by her, so I think knowing that I was going to have a fair bit of time on the ball... and really fully committing to my game, and really just trying to be as aggressive as I can and take as much time away from her as I can as well.

“She’s an amazing competitor and moves really well around the court, and I was just trying to find the open spaces when I could.”

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In the men’s tournament in Montreal, Australia’s Alexei Popyrin beat Roman Andres Burruchaga 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, while Adam Walton lost to Jenson Brooksby 6-3, 6-4.

Third seed Alex de Minaur beat James Duckworth 6-2, 7-6(6) in an all-Aussie affair.

Players are building towards the US Open, with the singles main draw beginning on August 31 (AEST).

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