The fairy tale continues for Loïs Boisson.
The French world No 361, the breakout star of this Roland Garros, continued her astonishing run with a second top-10 win in three days, defeating the sixth seed Mirra Andreeva, 7-6 (8-6), 6-3, to become the first wildcard in the open era to reach a women’s singles semi-final on the Parisian clay.
On a stage that has seen so many French players freeze down the years, Boisson was once again a revelation, backing up Monday’s epic three-set victory over Jessica Pegula, the world No 3, with another performance full of wit, style and tenacity.
The 22-year-old’s game is a joyous patchwork of skidding slice and rearing topspin, one moment all artful drop shots and angles, the next a battery of booming serves and big forehands.
It is a formidable arsenal, one that combines the modern power game with the artistry of a bygone era, and its potency has been magnified by the impassioned support of a crowd yearning to acclaim a homegrown champion for the first time since Mary Pierce conquered Paris a quarter of a century ago. A French Open that began in emotional fashion, with Rafael Nadal, Caroline Garcia and Richard Gasquet all bidding the tournament farewell, may yet conclude in similarly impassioned mood.
If that is to happen, Boisson will first have to get past Coco Gauff, the American second seed, who came from behind to defeat her compatriot Madison Keys 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 6-1 in the day’s first quarter-final. But for a player making her grand slam debut just months after returning from a torn anterior cruciate ligament that denied her a wildcard appearance at her home slam last year, everything seems possible now.
“It’s really incredible, I’m so happy to be in the semi-final here, and I hope it will continue,” said Boisson, who is projected to rise to 65 in the rankings and is now a prime candidate to receive a wildcard for Wimbledon, for which she is currently 60th on the list of alternates.
“I don’t really think about what will be next, you know, the ranking, Wimbledon and everything. I just try to stay focused on this tournament now. I really enjoy everything that I live here, on the court and outside the court, so I will see this after. For now, I just have to prepare the match of tomorrow.”
As Andreeva can attest, the same applies in reverse. For all the experience the 18-year-old Russian has accumulated across the course of her brief career, she is unlikely to have encountered a skillset like that possessed by Boisson too often. Unsurprisingly, Andreeva’s coach, the former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martínez, was an interested observer during the Frenchwoman’s dramatic win over Pegula.
It seemed initially that the Spaniard’s scouting would reap dividends for her young charge. Andreeva went about her business with intelligence and purpose, biding her time from the back of the court and refusing to become entangled in Boisson’s intricately woven web of ever-shifting spins and tempo.
The Russian struck her backhand down the line with devastating potency and was constantly alive to the danger posed by Boisson’s touch, moving forward swiftly to intercept her opponent’s drop shots and dealing with them calmly and clear-headedly once there.
It was a performance of precocious maturity from the teenager, and it carried her all the way to a set point at 5-3. Boisson fended off the danger with a deliciously angled backhand winner and drew on her defensive skills to save another set point at 5-6 down in the tiebreak, but it was her topspin-heavy forehand that did the bulk of the damage, pushing Andreeva deep into her backhand corner and opening up the court for her to move in and kill off points at the net.
The Russian was not helped by the Parisian crowd, who were to be found belting out the French national anthem as early as the warm-up, and who cheered every Boisson success as throatily as they hailed Andreeva’s errors. It was a lot for the teenager to cope with but, for all her obvious exasperation, she heeded Martínez’s vocal demands to step inside the baseline and take on anything short, rapidly opening up a 3-0 lead in the second set.
Her inner turmoil remained close to the surface, however, never more obviously than when she slapped her thigh in frustration after failing to return a Boisson drop shot, and slowly her game began to unravel amid a welter of unforced errors.
On match point, as a final despairing lob from Andreeva drifted wide, Boisson sank to the clay on her back, briefly overcome by emotion as she became the first French player to reach the last four since Marion Bartoli in 2011. She arose covered in red dirt and covered in glory, but her emotional reaction should not be mistaken for satisfaction. As she remarked afterwards, no young player dreams of making a semi-final; more remains to be done.
“I don’t think it’s a miracle,” said Boisson. “For sure, I have a little bit of luck also, but I think it’s just the hard work that I put [in] since I started playing tennis, and also last year with my rehab and everything, it’s just the result of hard work. Nothing else.
“I think every kid who plays tennis has the dream to win a slam. More for French players to win Roland Garros. It’s a dream. For sure I will go for the dream, because my dream is to win it, not to be in the semi-final. So I will try to do my best for it.”
Paris expects nothing less.