Around the grounds at the Porte D'Auteuil venue on women’s semifinals day
©André Ferreira / FFTFor the first time since 2021, the Roland-Garros women’s singles final on Saturday will be without the four-time champion Iga Swiatek.
In a captivating first semifinal on Thursday world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka ended the Pole’s staggering 26-match Paris win streak, inflicting her first defeat at the French major since June 9 2021, some 1457 days since that loss to Maria Sakkari in the last eight four years ago.
The two heavyweights split sets before Sabalenka took things up a notch to race through the decider 6-0 under the Chatrier roof. The 27-year-old has now reached the final at five of the last six Grand Slams she has played.
In two days’ time Sabalenka will face Coco Gauff - the world No.1 up against the world No.2 for the trophy - after the American swept past French wild card sensation Lois Boisson for the loss of three games.
Earlier the first trophy had been presented when Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori combined to win their second mixed major together after claiming the US Open title last September.
Their 6-4, 6-2 result over Americans Taylor Townsend and Evan King made them the first Italian team to win the mixed title in Paris since 1958.
There was a big victory on the doubles court for Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos over Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Hugo Nys in the first of the men’s semifinals.
Granollers and Zeballos’ hopes of a first Grand Slam title together is still alive and they’ll discover the identity of their opponents in the final when Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski play Christian Harrison and Evan King in the second semi on Friday.
Day 13 also sees both women’s doubles semifinals played on Court Simonne-Mathieu where singles top 10 stars Mirra Andreeva and Jasmine Paolini will be on opposite sides of the net.
In the wheelchair events on Thursday Dutch women’s second seed Aniek Van Koot stayed on track to win a first Roland-Garros singles title - the only major trophy missing from her career achievements. Kate Clark rounds up the big stories from the third day of action.
And in the junior events, Britain’s Hannah Klugman produced a gutsy performance to outfight Czech Sarah Melany Fajmonova 7-5 in the third set en route to the girls’ semifinals. Alex Sharp spoke to the teenager about an inspirational recent training trip to the Rafa Nadal Academy.
Men’s semifinals will no doubt provide the main focus on Friday as Carlos Alcaraz and Lorenzo Musetti clash at 2.30pm on Chatrier, followed by Novak Djokovic versus Jannik Sinner at 7pm.
Chris Oddo spoke to John McEnroe about Djokovic’s form this week, while Dan Imhoff tracked down Mats Wilander to discuss all things Alcaraz.
Alix Ramsay breaks down the two rivalries and head-to-heads in her semifinal previews.
ROLAND-GARROS
19 May - 8 June 2025
