Teenager Andreeva stuns ailing Sabalenka to advance to French Open semifinals

Second seed Aryna Sabalenka was kicked out of the French Open following a shock 6-7(5) 6-4 6-4 quarter-final defeat to Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva on Wednesday after being hampered by a illness throughout the competition.

The victory made Andreeva, 17, who will face 12th seed Jasmine Paolini in the last four, the youngest semi-finalist at a Grand Slam since Martina Hingis, 16, at the US Open in 1997 and the youngest at Roland Garros. from the great Switzerland that same year.

It also ended Australian Open champion Sabalenka's 11-game Grand Slam winning streak this year and ensured her first major tournament defeat since the French Open in 2022. “It's incredible. It was an exciting match and we both played well,” Andreeva said.

“I'm really happy that I managed to win the match and advance to my first semi-final.” Andreeva said she came into the match full of nerves and her main goal was to win more than the five games she won in her loss to Sabalenka in the quarterfinals in Madrid last month.

“After I lost the first set, I thought, 'Well, now I have to aim for the set to at least make it three sets.' Afterwards, I just tried to play point by point and win as many points as possible,” Andreeva said.

“I would say that at first I didn't really believe it, because she is very experienced. She has two Grand Slam tournaments under her belt. She's a great player, very aggressive.

“So it was like, 'we'll see what happens…I'll try to enjoy the atmosphere and try to play the best I can'.”

After comfortably winning her last two meetings with Andreeva, Belarusian Sabalenka wasted no time getting to work as the Australian Open champion stepped up with her big shots to take a 3-1 lead before his serve was undone in the first set.

Sabalenka, suddenly unwell and ill, called the coach after Andreeva, sensing a real opportunity to cause a huge upset on the biggest stage, who took a 5-3 lead. But Sabalenka regrouped to force a tie-break where the 2023 semi-finalist took the lead with a superb drop shot on set-point.

She appeared to struggle physically again at the start of the next set and received a time violation for taking too long between matches.

She crouched on her knees to recover at one point and looked flustered at 4-2, ultimately allowing her Russian opponent to take the match to a decision.

After an exchange of breaks, the two engaged in a high-quality battle that thrilled the fans at the Philippe Chatrier court, but Andreeva held on and broke Sabalenka in the final game to claim her biggest victory in her second match point.

Andreeva said that although she was a typical teenager, she stood out on the court for her maturity.

“I still have to do my school which I don't like doing. I watch a lot of television in my free time. I watch Netflix. I spend too much time on my Instagram sometimes,” she added.

“But maybe what makes me a little different, I don't know if I can say it but I feel like I'm a mature person. And I feel like I know what I'm doing.