Iga Swiatek sacks Martina Trevisan of Italy 6-3, 6-1 to become the first Polish woman in the Open Era to make the last four in Paris Open.
The 19-year-old reached her first Grand Slam semi-final on Tuesday while also ending the stunning run of qualifier Martina Trevisan.
Iga has been on form and she continued that on Tuesday having trailed 3-1 early on but went on to win 11 of the next 12 games and has now set up a meeting with another qualifier, Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska.
Podoroska stunned Elina Svitolina to qualify.
Watch Swiatek vs Trevisan highlights below
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The 19-year-old has now gone one round further than Agnieszka Radwanska, who made the quarter-finals in 2013 as the first Polish woman to reach the semi-finals at Roland-Garros in the Open era.
Radwanska, however, quickly sent Swiatek her congratulations on social media and the Pole said the secret to her success was keeping everything the same as she has throughout the tournament, including the music she’s been listening to.
“Sometimes I’m listening to calm music when I need to calm down, like (when) the adrenaline level is too high,” she says.
“Right now I was being kind of sleepy before match. Actually, I wish I could say something new to you, but I was still listening to Guns N’ Roses ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ because I want to keep my routines.
“Actually, I wanted to change it because right now it’s kind of boring to listen every day to the same song. Yeah, I stayed with Guns N’ Roses because I wanted to win. That’s it.”
With a semi-final to come against world No.131 Podoroska, Swiatek will now have to deal with being the big favourite, with the huge carrot of a place in a first Grand Slam final dangling tantalizingly in front of her.
Podoroska shocks Svitolina
Nadia Podoroska beat world No.5 Elina Svitolina in the Roland-Garros quarter-finals on Monday.
“I don’t want to wake up,” says Podoroska after the match. “I know there are many people in Argentina watching my game and following me. The support is a lot and I want to thank them because for me it is very, very important, because we are not having a good time in the country due to the pandemic.”
The 131st-ranked player could never have imagined she was about to embark on a journey of a lifetime and become the first qualifier in the Open Era to reach the semi-finals in Paris when she was drawn to play Magdalena Frech in the first round of qualifying almost three weeks ago.
Eight matches later she pulled off the improbable 6-2, 6-4 upset in her first match against a top-20 player on easily the biggest court she has ever competed on.
This was only her second Grand Slam main draw, having qualified for the US Open in 2016.
She was also sidelined for eight months from July 2017 due to a right wrist injury which left her weighing up her future in the sport. Her decision to persevere finally paid off.
Iga for the title. Go Iga Swiatek!!!!