“Pristine” is not a word that comes to mind to describe Wednesday’s women’s quarterfinals at Roland Garros.
In a nervy, topsy-turvy, largely rhythmless opener, Coco Gauff and Madison Keys combined for 40 winners and 101 errors, and broke each other 14 times. Both players were tense and prone to mistakes early; playing a countrywoman in a Grand Slam quarterfinal will do that to you. But only one of them, Gauff, managed to cut those errors out as the match progressed. By the third set, she’d returned to the lockdown mode that has served her so well at this tournament in recent years.
“I’m very happy with how I managed to fight today,” a relieved Gauff said after her . “It was a tough match. Madison is a tough opponent, but glad to be in the semis.”
“I wasn’t feeling the ball obviously to start the match,” she said, but a change in racquet tension helped. “Usually if you’re playing too passive, in the end the more aggressive player is going to win. I was just trying to be aggressive.”
The second quarterfinal, between Biosson and Mirra Andreeva, was of somewhat higher quality, through both made more mistakes than winners. The ugliness came in the second set, when the 18-year-old Andreeva, regularly booed by the capacity French crowd, came unglued, smashed her leg with her racquet, bashed a ball high into the seats and watched a 3-0 lead turn into a .
“I didn’t really pay attention to the [booing], but obviously with nerves and with pressure, it became a little harder,” Andreeva said. “But, anyway, I think that I can learn from this, so nothing more I can say for now.”
Andreeva credited Boisson’s good play for her win, which is only appropriate. The 22-year-old, 361st-ranked Frenchwoman has lit up the tournament with one of—if not the most—improbable runs in Grand Slam history. By now, though, after seeing the way she has gone about beating two Top Tenners, Jessica Pegula and Andreeva, back to back, the element of shock over’s Boisson’s performances should be waning. Her game—physical, spin-based, forehand-centric—is the embodiment of how tennis has been played in this decade. She can hit her serve with flat pace or a high-bouncing kick. She sets up points to feature her forehand, and she loves to take it inside-in for blistering winners. She adds slice and finesse with her backhand.
“She has a great serve,” Andreeva said. “She has a great forehand. I think she hit a lot of winners with her forehand today. I think that she also played solid and consistent throughout the whole match.”