The French entrance to the Joker Lois Boisson upset Mirra Andreeva 7-6 (6), 6-3, 6-3 in front of a noisy crowd and largely partisan at Roland Garros to reach the semi-finals of the Open of France.
Andreeva has shown her frustration several times with the crowd, while excited fans chanted “laws, laws” between the points, beckoned by the tricolor flags, shouted during the game and even applauded the errors of the Russian adolescent.
“It’s incredible. Thank you for supporting me like that. I have no words,” said drink at the crowd at home. “I ran a little too much because I was so tense at the beginning, but I fought hard in this first set, which was so intense. At the start of the second, I felt a little empty, but I stayed there and I finished the work.”
A year ago, Boisson torn the ACL in its left knee a week before the start of its Grand Salm home tournament, preventing it from accepting an invitation to play. Thursday, she will have the chance to go to the final.
“It’s incredible, whatever happens, given what happened last year and all the difficult times that I went through,” said drink during his post-match interview.
Boisson, 22, became the first woman to reach the semi-finals during her first Grand Chelem tournament since Jennifer Capriati at the 1990 France Open. Boisson is also the first female joker to reach the French semi-finals in the open era (since 1968).
She is the youngest French semi-finalist of a great home from Amelie Mauresmo in Wimbledon in 1999. The last Frenchwoman to win the title at Roland Garros was Mary Pierce, 25 years ago.
“I don’t think it’s a miracle,” said drink. “It’s just the result of hard work. Nothing else.”
Boisson will face the n ° 3 Coco Gauff in the semi-finals after the American star overcome the sloping game and dropped the first set to beat Madison Keys 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-1.
The first set was marked by momentum swords and a brilliant shot of the two players. Boisson was found twice in a break but retaliated each time, using heavy rotation and deep bases to disturb his Russian opponent.
Andreeva has become visibly tense on key points, fighting to keep its cool and waste the chance to close the whole when you are increasing 5-3. Despite the saving of three section points and the forcing of an equality break, she finally gave the drink set with two consecutive setback errors.
In the second set, Andreeva responded strongly and ran to an advance of 3-0. But Boisson broke up with a thunderous reverse winner on the whole line, drawing a roar of the approval of the living crowd.
Andreeva received a warning after marking a routine’s right -to -kill volley and a bit of a bullet in the stands. She then argued with the referee for a call that gave drink a breaking point. On the next point, Andreeva to double and never recovered.
“It is normal that they support a French player, so I knew it will be like that. I think that in the first set, I managed it quite well [and] I didn’t really pay attention to this, “said Andreeva.” But obviously with nerves and with pressure, it has become a little more difficult. “”
At n ° 361 in the WTA ranking, Boisson is the third most based woman to reach the semi-finals during a major in the past 30 years. Kim Clijsters (2009 US Open) and Justin Henin (Australian Open 2010) were not classified for their races.
Having reached a career summit of n ° 152 last year before his knee injury, drink will climb at least at n ° 68 on Monday. And it could be even higher if it manages to make a third right shock against Gauff.
A non -series player has reached the final of the France Open of France twice in the past four years: the possible champion Barbora Krejcikova in 2021 and Karolina Muchova in 2023.
“I think that every child who plays tennis has the dream of winning a slam. More for a French player to win Roland Garros, that’s for sure,” said drink. “So yes, it’s a dream. Of course, I will go for the dream – because my dream is to win it, not to be in the semi -finals.”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
