The surprises just keep coming in the 2021 French Open women’s singles tournament. After so many of the top stars in the WTA Tour failed to make even the round of 16, the semi-finals will have no big names at all after a couple of stunning quarter-final upsets.
Defending champion Iga Swiatek was surprisingly knocked out in straight sets by Maria Sakkari, while rising teenage star Coco Gauff was also denied her first taste of a Grand Slam semi-final.
That now leaves four unheralded players – all of whom are making their first trip to a Grand Slam semi-finals – to fight it out for this year’s French Open crown.
Read on below as SBOTOP catches you up on all the happenings on the French Open women’s singles tournament.
Sakkari stuns defending champ Swiatek in straight sets
Iga Swiatek’s bid to become the first back-to-back French Open women’s champion in 14 years came to a crashing end as she was upset by No. 17 seed Maria Sakkari in the quarter-finals, 6-4 6-4.
Swiatek, who was riding an 11-match winning streak at Roland Garros without dropping a single set, had looked so impressive in her first four matches of this year’s tournament.
Moreover, her French Open 2021 odds of becoming the first woman since Justine Henin-Hardienne in 2007 to successfully defend her title were much more favourable after many of the other top seeds crashed out early on.
However, she was completely outclassed by Sakkari, who made French Open 2021 highlights with both her service and return games.
Sakkari’s serve, which was so devastating in her 6-1 6-3 demolition of No. 4 seed Sofia Kenin in the round of 16, was sensational once again. She had five aces and won an astounding 83 per cent of her 1st serve points. Meanwhile, she also broke Swiatek’s serve three times.
The 25-year-old Sakkari will move on to her first career Grand Slam semi-final, and while this is already an amazing achievement for her, she remains focused on claiming the grand prize.
“I don’t want to get too excited because I don’t have a day off tomorrow,” Sakkari said post-match. “I still have to play, stay focused. But it’s a big achievement, for sure. I’m enjoying, as I said on court, my tennis and myself.
“I have people around me telling it was going to come. You know, they were right. Maybe I was the one who was telling them, I was impatient, telling them, ‘When and when and when?’ It actually came this week, so I’m happy about it.”
Krejcikova cuts Gauff’s Roland Garros run short
Sakkari’s opponent in the semi-finals will be Barbora Krejcikova, who ended Coco Gauff’s run at Roland Garros with a 7-6(6) 6-3 victory.
Krejcikova saved five set points in a hotly contested first set, which she won in a tiebreaker. She then stormed to a commanding 5-0 lead in the second set, although she needed six match points as Gauff attempted a furious comeback.
This will be Krejcikova’s first trip to a Grand Slam singles semi-final. But she does have a Grand Slam title under her belt already as she won the Roland Garros women’s doubles tournament in 2018.
But she has finally emerged as a formidable singles player over the past year, which she attributes to a change in perspective during the pandemic.
“Seeing that there are also other things in the world that actually are happening,” Krejcikova said. “[That] are tougher and more difficult than just me playing tennis and losing.
“It just got to my mind. I’m like, Well, I go and I play tennis and I lose, but there are actually people that are losing their lives. I just felt more like, Well, just relax because you are healthy. Just appreciate this and just enjoy the game. You can do something what maybe other people would like to do as well but they cannot.”
Prior to beating Gauff, Krejcikova took care of another American in Sloane Stephens, 6-2 6-0, in the round of 16 and also demolished No. 5 seed Elina Svitolina 6-3 6-2 in the third round.
Krejcikova has faced Sakkari twice before and won both matches. That includes their first-round match in Dubai this year.
Unseeded Zidansek the first Slovenian to reach Grand Slam semi
Krejcikova is one of two unseeded players in the French Open semi-finals, with the other being Tamara Zidansek.
The 23-year-old became the first Slovenian to play in a Grand Slam semi-final after she overcame Paula Badosa in a three-set battle in the quarter-finals.
Zidansek will face No. 31 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who also endured a difficult three-set match against Elena Rybakina to reach her first singles semi-final.
Each of Pavlyuchenkova’s last three matches have all been three-setters. She had previously knocked out the Belarusian duo of No. 3 Aryna Sabalenko and No. 15 Victoria Azarenka.
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