Boisson boilover sends wild card into semis

Story of the match

The fact Boisson had taken her place among the 128 starters was a feat in itself after she only returned to competition in France last month with a sole victory over Harriet Dart.

The world No.361 was meant to make her debut a year ago before the knee injury, which later required surgery, ruled her out just a week before Roland-Garros.

Swinging with a fearlessness that belied her experience at this level, the steely Dijonnaise continued her fairytale run following her upset of world No.3 Jessica Pegula in the fourth round.

On a showery morning, Boisson warmed up trading groundstrokes with men’s world No.1 Jannik Sinner inside Court Philippe-Chatrier.

With outdoor courts out of action, it was a brief introduction to playing beneath the roof for the first time.

For a woman so adept at maintaining an even keel even as she closed out victory with each passing round, this was enough for her to get her bearings and despite having slipped behind 3-5 in the opening set against Andreeva she never panicked.

Staring down a set point on serve at 3-5, she took it to the world No.6 – backhand and forehand winners bookended her third ace to hold.

The home crowd rallied behind their own and nearly lifted the roof when a nervous Andreeva failed to serve out the set a game later.

The sixth seed wobbled again but withstood the challenge in a 14-minute game to force the tiebreak but how quickly the tide turned.

After a second set point slipped her grasp, the Frenchwoman had the locals daring to dream of a second sizeable upset in three days.

Unmoved, she raised her hand to her ear after claiming the 80-minute opener and the deafening ovation only grew in the second set when she recovered from 0-3 down.

Andreeva is not the first player to let a passionate French crowd get under her skin and she won't be the last. She let it show in no uncertain terms on her way to surrendering serve for 3-4 and after two hours and eight minutes she was broken again to end her campaign and hopes of back-to-back semi-finals in Paris.

Key stats

After Boisson picked herself up off the deck and wiped the clay from her face, she fought back tears as Lucas Pouille reminded the crowd of her extraordinary achievement.

She becomes only the second woman in the past 40 years to defeat multiple top-10 opponents in her Grand Slam debut, after Monica Seles at Roland-Garros in 1989.

Excluding unranked players, Boisson also becomes the lowest-ranked woman to make a major semi-final in the last 40 years and having started the tournament as the French No.24, she is guaranteed to depart as their new No.1 with a projected ranking of world No.65.

In a first meeting with Gauff she will bid to become the first wild card since Justine Henin at the 2010 Australian Open to reach a Grand Slam final.

While Boisson’s 24 winners were five fewer than Andreeva’s her unforced error count was just 27 to her opponent’s 43.

Boisson’s assessment

For all the hype and surge in attention surrounding the breakout French sensation, Boisson remains as level off court as she does on it.

Although in disbelief at what she has already achieved, she stopped short of calling it a miracle.

“I think every kid who plays tennis has the dream to win a Slam. More for French player to win Roland-Garros, for sure,” she said.

“So, yeah, it's a dream. For sure I will go for the dream, because my dream is to win it, not to be in the semi-final.”

While carrying the hopes of most of the 15,000-strong crowd, she kept calm throughout, no mean feat at a home Slam.

“For me the crowd is really not something that puts pressure on me because they are with me,” she said. “It's just like I love to play with the crowd. I love to hear my name when I won a point and everything.

“For me it's just something, a plus. It's not pressure, but I think it's also really difficult for other player from another country. For me it's really nice to have them.”

Andreeva’s assessment

Despite having missed a golden opportunity to reach her second major semi-final in Paris, the sixth seed vowed to learn from the experience of competing before such a parochial crowd.

“I think everything together combined. I was not really happy with some points and some shots and decisions I made today on the court, but obviously with pressure and with pressure from the crowd, and sometimes I also felt not very confident in some actions that I do on court in my shots,” Andreeva said.

“All of this together, I think that it played a role in this, but I think that, again, I will learn from this. I will do everything that I can to maybe not do it the next time I play a big match like this …

“I can say of course I could have done something better as well, but it is tennis. So today she managed the situation better than me, and I think that's why she got the win.”