Tennis’ Cinderella story gets ‘crazier’ as World No. 361 on brink of unthinkable French Open feat
The tennis world has been rocked by what tennis experts are calling “one of the craziest stories in tennis history”.
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The Cinderella story of French wildcard Lois Boisson has continued, as the 22-year-old again shocked the world by beating world No. 6 Mirra Andreeva 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 in the French Open quarter finals.
The world No. 361 had already eliminated US third seed Jessica Pegula two days ago, but she backed it up again in the early hours of Thursday morning (AEST), sweeping past teen phenom Andreeva in straight sets.
You can watch highlights of the match in the video above
Boisson kept her cool as last year’s semi-finalist Andreeva unravelled from a 3-0 lead in the second set.
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A frustrated Andreeva received a warning from the umpire for blasting the ball into the crowd before later being booed after arguing with the umpire over a line call.
The Frenchwoman made the most of her rival losing her head, taking the last six games of the second set to take the match.
“I think that in the first set, I managed it pretty well. but obviously with nerves and with pressure, it became a little harder,” Andreeva admitted after the loss.
The young phenom struggled with the pressure, hitting nine double-faults in total, and made 43 unforced errors to Boisson’s 27.
Boisson is now the third player to reach the semi-finals in her Grand Slam main-draw debut since 1980, following Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati who also did it at Roland-Garros in 1989 and 1990.
While Boisson has become the first French semi-finalist at her home grand slam event since Marion Bartoli in 2011.
Her debut was meant to come in Paris a year ago but a serious left knee injury delayed her arrival on the world stage.
Before the start of this year’s Roland Garros, she had won just one match on the main tour.
She is such an unknown that the WTA does not even have a proper headshot for her.
Boisson now stands alone as the lowest-ranked woman to make it to the quarterfinals let alone the semis at the French Open.
Making her rags to riches story even crazier, in May she was 152 spots below the threshold to gain entry into an International Tennis Federation satellite event in Saint-Gaudens, France on clay with prizemoney of $75,000.
She went three sets in her opening round against Gabriela Knutson, a Czech ranked world No. 194, but ended up claiming the title.
That triumph not only boosted Boisson’s ranking but saw her awarded a French Open wildcard and the rest is history.
Incredibly Lois Boisson’s earnings for her entire career before Roland Garros was $227,000.
After reaching the French Open semi-finals, she will leave with at least $1.22m.
“One of the craziest stories in #tennis history keeps getting crazier. French wildcard Loïs Boisson, ranked 361, is into semis at her first #FrenchOpen and 2d tour event Just upset No. 6 seed Mirra Andreeva 7-6 (6), 6-3 with the support of a centre-court crowd. Second top 10 win here after Pegula in R4,” author Cristopher Clarey wrote on X.
“Lois Boisson’s French Open run is absolutely insane,” another added.
“France’s Lois Boisson was meant to play Roland-Garros – her dream tournament – for the first time last year, but she tore her ACL the week prior to it. A year later, making her Roland-Garros debut at last, she’s into the second week! How can you not be romantic about sports?” tennis writer Bastien Fachan wrote.
Originally published as Tennis’ Cinderella story gets ‘crazier’ as World No. 361 on brink of unthinkable French Open feat
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