Lois Boisson's crazy fortnight

Twelve facts around the wild card’s incredible Roland-Garros run

Lois Boisson, Roland-Garros 2025, fourth round©Jean-Charles Caslot / FFT
 - Lee Goodall

She's the talk of tennis. The centre of attention here in Paris.

It’s been a long time since the sport has seen something quite as extraordinary and surprising as Frenchwoman Lois Boisson’s semifinal run at Roland-Garros.

A wild card ranked No.361 playing her first Grand Slam and beating top 10 players for fun en route to the semifinals at her home major. It's a Hollywood movie script kind of fortnight.

So here are some facts and numbers that demonstrate how rare Boisson's achievements are.

  • The 22-year-old will jump at least around 300 spots in the WTA rankings after Roland-Garros. She has a current 'live' ranking of No.65 after Wednesday's quarterfinal win. If she beats Coco Gauff in the semifinals on Thursday she’ll be in the world’s top 35.
  • At the start of the tournament, Boisson was the French No.24. Next Monday when the new WTA rankings are released she will be the new French No.1.
  • Before her Paris fairytale, Boisson had only played two tour-level matches - a first round win over Britain’s Harriet Dart at Rouen and a second round defeat to Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima at the same event.
  • Prior to her maiden major, she had never played anyone ranked inside the top 50. She has scored two top ten wins this week in the space of three days.
  • Boisson has taken out three seeds during her run to the semifinals - 24th seed Elise Mertens, third seed Jessica Pegula and sixth seed Mirra Andreeva.
  • The Dijonnaise is the first French women’s singles semifinalist here since Marion Bartoli in 2011.
  • She is only the second ever woman in the last 40 years to beat multiple top 10 opponents at her maiden Grand Slam. Monica Seles did the same in Paris in 1989.
  • The Frenchwoman is only the second player ranked outside the top 300 in the last 40 years to beat multiple top 10 opponents at the same event since Serena Williams did the same in Chicago in 1997.
  • Lois is the lowest-ranked women’s Grand Slam semifinalist in the last 40 years (apart from unranked players).
  • She’s the first wild card to reach the women’s semis at Roland-Garros in the Open era.
  • Boisson is the third woman since 1980 to reach the semifinals on a Grand Slam debut. Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati did the same in Paris.
  • The right-hander had played the joint-lowest number of tour level matches (two) in the Open era before making a Grand Slam semifinal run - Elisabeth Ekblom enjoyed the same achievement at the 1976 Australian Open.
Lois Boisson, Roland-Garros 2025, quarterfinal©Nicolas Gouhier / FFT