The 22-year-old French tennis player Loïs Boisson, who is only the 361st place in the WTA ranking, continues to campaign in Roland Garros after moving to the Parisian tournament semifinals with a surprising victory over Russian Mirrh Andreeva 7-6 (8/6) and 6-3 on Wednesday (4).
Unknown to the general public until just a week ago, Boisson thus became the first French to reach the semis of the traditional tournament since Mary Pierce in 2002.
In the semifinals, on Thursday (5), she will face the American Coco Gauff (No. 2), which defeated her compatriot Madison Keys (No. 8) with partials of 6-7 (6/8), 6-4 and 6-1 in the first match on Wednesday.
After defeating American Jessica Pegula (WTA No. 3) in the previous round, Boisson surprised once again with her posture and the quality of her game by defeating another Top 10 tennis player, young Andreeva, who at 18 is already number 6 of the world ranking, this year in Dubai and Indian Wells, and is intended to become one of the biggest stars of the tone in the future.
Although he never figured out among the 150 best ranking tennis players and being left out of Roland Garros a year ago due to a serious knee injury, Boisson continues to impress the Parisian tournament and, on Wednesday, was supported by the 15,000 fans who filled the Philippe Chatrier court.
Boisson seemed to feel the weight of playing a place in the semifinals of the traditional Parisian tournament and had his withdrawal twice on the first set.
But as soon as he recomposed himself, he began to drop his arm and accumulate points against Andreeva, which was increasingly shaken by the pressure of being the great favorite.
In Tiebreak, Andreeva wasted a set point. The nervousness dominated her and she accumulated error after error until ‘giving’ the French for the first set.
At the beginning of the second partial, the Russian looked concentrated and opened 3-0, but in the fifth game came the decisive time of the match: she protested shortly after a dubious ball that the referee of chair ended up granting the French.
Andreeva was sinking in the match, losing five consecutive games, and in the latter could not score even with his withdrawal in front of a totally delivered crowd to Boisson.
“It’s amazing to play in front of such a big audience and feel their support. It was amazing. Thank you,” said the new French tennis heroine, lacking great idols.
She admitted to “too busy” and was “very tense” at the beginning of the match.
