French Open 2025: Coco Gauff defeats Madison Keys, will face France's Lois Boisson in semifinals

Yahoo

2 days ago

Coco Gauff advances to the French Open semifinals for the second year in a row. (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images)
In an all-American quarterfinal match, No. 2 seed Coco Gauff came out on top of No. 7 seed Madison Keys at the French Open on Wednesday, 6-7, 6-4, 6-1. Gauff advances to face Lois Boisson in the semifinals on Thursday in Gauff's second consecutive French Open semifinal appearance.
Keys was the highest-ranked opponent Gauff had faced in this French Open, and she proved a challenge early before letting up late.
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While both players took a while to get settled in, it was a rough start for Gauff, who piled up errors as she went down 4-1 in the first set before surging back with four straight games to take a brief lead. She and Keys matched each other en route to a tiebreak, which the 2025 Australian Open winner ultimately won 8-6. It was the first set Gauff had dropped in the tournament as she struggled with her serve at the end.
Gauff improved in the second set and mounted a 4-1 lead, but similar to the first set, Keys rallied back to tie things up. But this time, Gauff was able to pull away, taking the set 6-4. Gauff was much sharper in the third set, taking a commanding lead and never letting up, capitalizing on Key's errors and minimizing her own.
Keys had 60 unforced errors to Gauff's 41, and 34 forced errors to Gauff's 24. But only two of Gauff's unforced errors came in the third set, while Keys had 16. Gauff had a 75% win rate on her first serve and converted 53% of her break points for the match.
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Gauff's best result at the French Open is a second-place finish in 2022 to Iga Świątek, who also beat her in last year's semifinals. Keys made it to the semifinals in 2018. Both players have one Grand Slam win to their name — Gauff the 2022 U.S. Open and Keys this year's Australian Open.
Boisson entered the event as the No. 361 ranked women's player, but has outplayed much higher-ranked opponents during her miraculous run to the semifinals. Before defeating No. 6 Mirra Andreeva in straight sets 7-6, 6-3 on Wednesday, Boisson also took down No. 3 Jessica Pegula earlier in the tournament.
Boisson — who is French — will have the hometown crowd behind her when she takes on Gauff in the semifinals on Thursday. The two have never faced each other in a head-to-head singles match.