A few hours after the elimination of Elena Rybakina by Jasmine Paolini, the quarter-finals of the women’s draw delivered a second huge surprise. Diminished by stomach pains, which twice forced the doctor to intervene, Aryna Sabalenka (2nd in the world) lost to Mirra Andreeva. The young Russian (17 years old, 38th) won 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4, in 2h30.
This is the Belarusian’s first defeat in nine quarter-finals in Majors. She also interrupts her series of six halves in a row in the last four. Even if this should not take anything away from Andreeva’s merit, Sabalenka was not in her right mind. As proof, his 41 unforced errors and his 6 double faults. It is therefore the Russian who will face Paolini for a place in the final. She becomes the youngest Grand Slam semi-finalist since Martina Hingis (16 years old) at Roland-Garros 1997.
Despite a sham break (2-0), Sabalenka started her game very poorly, dropping her serve three times in four games. Unrecognizable, she showed signs of annoyance and made errors unworthy of her level. An intervention by the doctor after seven games provided the beginnings of an answer: the Belarusian was suffering from stomach pains. Broken 5-3, she still had a start to come back to level (5-5). Then, came out with energy during the decisive game, winning 7 points to 5, after 1h01. Despite this lead, Sabalenka showed no sign of recovery and continued to grimace.
The second round was just as disjointed as the first. Despite a high quality return, Andreeva was sometimes impatient and was unable to take the lead. She lost a break in advance (4-2 to 4-4) but the inconsistency of her rival allowed her to come back to level, a set everywhere. Due to wandering, this quarter-final struggled to get off the ground.
Despite her fatigue, Sabalenka nevertheless signed another break to come away 3-2 in the last set. But she immediately gave it up. Despite her young age, Andreeva did not lose her temper and did not give up. She was rewarded for it in the last game, where the world number 2 made three big blunders on her forehand. But it was on a marvelous backhand lob that Andreeva finally won the bet. Roland-Garros will be entitled to a totally unexpected finalist.
