Italian surprise package Jasmine Paolini staved off a fightback from fourth seed Elena Rybakina to seal a stunning 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win on Wednesday and advance to the French Open semifinals for the first time. The 12th-seeded Paolini set up a last-four showdown with Russian 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva who sent second seed Aryna Sabalenka home with a shock 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 win. Sabalenka was hampered by illness throughout the contest.
Having won her last two meetings with Andreeva comfortably, Belarusian Sabalenka wasted little time getting to work as the Australian Open champion cranked up her big shots to go ahead 3-1 before her serve came undone in the opening set.
A suddenly out-of-sorts Sabalenka called the trainer out and had medication for illness after the 17-year-old Andreeva surged to a 5-3 lead and sensed a real opportunity to cause a massive upset on the biggest stage.
But Sabalenka regrouped to force a tie-break where the 2023 semifinalist seized the advantage with a stunning drop shot on set-point, but appeared to struggle physically again at the start of the next set.
She got a time violation for taking too long between games as she crouched to her knees to recover at one point, and looked agitated at 4-2 down, eventually allowing her Russian opponent to take the match into a decider.
After an exchange of breaks, the pair were locked in a high-quality battle that thrilled fans on Court Philippe Chatrier but Andreeva held her own and broke Sabalenka in the final game to complete a memorable victory on her second match point.
Earlier, playing in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal, the 28-year-old Paolini got off to a confident start by winning the opening two games and forced her opponent to work hard to hold serve, before breaking again en route to taking the first set.
A sublime backhand winner gave Paolini another break in the third game of the next set but 2022 Wimbledon champion Rybakina responded with one of her own and slowly came to grips with the Italian's power and precision.
Russian-born Kazakh Rybakina exchanged breaks with Paolini again but the 24-year-old held firm to level the contest at one set apiece and recovered after surrendering her serve at the start of the decider. Paolini secured a hold to love to make it 4-4, playing at the level she showed early in the match and she took advantage of Rybakina's errors to close out a famous victory.
