World number 361 Lois Boisson stuns Mirra Andreeva to reach semi-finals
Wildcard Lois Boisson stunned sixth seed Mirra Andreeva to reach the semi-finals of the French Open.
The 22-year-old Frenchwoman, ranked 361 in the world, pulled off her second scarcely believable upset in the space of two days with a 7-6 (6) 6-3 victory.
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Boisson dropped to the clay with her hands over her eyes in emotional scenes before cupping her ear to the crowd on a packed, raucous Court Philippe-Chatrier.
It was all too much for Russian teenager Andreeva, who had two set points in the first but suffered a complete meltdown in the second.
She told the crowd to 'shut up', received a code violation for whacking a ball into the stands, burst into tears and forced her mother Raisa to leave her player's box.
Boisson, who suffered a career-threatening ACL injury before what was supposed to be her debut here last year, will be comfortably inside the top 100 after this fairytale run.
Mirra Andreeva endured a torrid afternoon (Aurelien Morissard/AP)
But she is playing like a top-10 player; she has now beaten the third seed, Jessica Pegula and the sixth in Andreeva, with second seed Coco Gauff awaiting on Thursday for a place in the final.
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Gauff had earlier passed her biggest test so far at Roland Garros as she scrapped her way past fellow American Madison Keys to reach the semi-finals.
A scruffy match, featuring a combined 101 unforced errors and 14 breaks of serve, ended 6-7 (6) 6-4 6-1 in favour of the world number two.
Gauff had previously not dropped a set as she quietly made her way through the friendlier side of the draw.
But in a nervy first set on both sides of the net, Gauff overturned a 4-1 deficit to force a set point at 5-4, only to be taken to a tie-break which Keys won.
Gauff went 4-1 up in the second but found herself pegged back, before a break and a hold took the match into a decider.
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The confidence had drained from Australian Open champion Keys while Gauff finally located her serve, having coughed up nine double faults over the first two sets.
A pass down the line brought up three match points and the 21-year-old roared with delight when Keys went long, giving her the victory in two hours and 11 minutes.
'Maddie was playing well, she's hitting the ball so fast and so low so I was just trying to fight for each point,' said Gauff, the runner-up at Roland Garros in 2022.
'I knew I had to be able to run today and as soon as the ball came short, punish her for it.
'It means a lot, getting through this tough match. I'm very happy to get through and be in the semi-finals again. I'll savour this one today and be ready for tomorrow's match.'
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