French Open 2024: Rohan Bopanna in semifinals; two upsets in women’s quarterfinals

India’s Rohan Bopanna and his doubles partner Matthew Ebden stormed into the semifinals of the ongoing French Open 2024 after beating Belgium’s Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.

Later, there were two upsets in the women’s quarterfinals on Court Philippe Chatrier when Jasmine Paolini beat fourth seed Elena Rybakina and later Russia’s Mirra Andreeva accounted for second seed Aryna Sabalenka.

Paolini won 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 while Andreeva triumphed with a scoreline of 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4. While Iga Swiatek will take on Coco Gauff in one semifinal, Paolini and Andreeva will meet in the second.

It will be the first time that Paolini and Andreeva are making a semifinal appearance at a Grand Slam.

Paolini, seeded 12th, was at her best when she took out the first set in quick time but Rybakina came back well to force the decider.

It was Paolini who kept her cool and played an all-round game to down the fourth seed.

With Jannik Sinner also reaching the semifinals, there will be more than one Italian playing in the semifinal of a Grand Slam for the first time.

Later, Russian teenager Andreeva became the youngest Grand Slam semi finalist since 1997 with a shock victory over Sabalenka. Martina Hingis was the youngest semifinalist when she entered the last four at the US Open 27 years ago.

Sabalenka was struggling with an illness and called for multiple medical time-outs and even popped in pain killers but couldn’t get going.

The 17-year-old fought back from a set down against her ailing opponent to win in a marathon two hours and 29 minutes.

Earlier, Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden won the first set 7-6 but could not manage to wrest the advantage and lost their game plan in the second set to go down 5-7. However, the World No. 2 pair came back strong in the third set and converted a break early to win 6-1 and enter the last four.

They will face the 11th-seeded Italian pair of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in the semifinals, in what will be a rematch of this year’s Australian Open final.