Lois Boisson’s unlikely progress at Roland Garros continued after the breakout French star upset Mirra Andreeva in straight sets on Wednesday.
From 3-1 down and after facing two set points in the first set, and from 3-0 down in the second, the French wildcard executed her heavy, athletic game to perfection, completing an astonishing 7-6(6) 6-3 win over the sixth seed.
The Court Philippe Chatrier crowd erupted as Boisson collapsed to the clay in celebration of her latest upset win, coming after she beat 24th seed Elise Mertens in round one and third-ranked Jessica Pegula in the last 16.
At world No.361, Boisson is the lowest-ranked women’s Grand Slam semifinalist – not including unranked Kim Clijsters at the 2009 US Open – in the past 40 years.
There she will face second seed Coco Gauff, who snapped Madison Keys’ Grand Slam winning streak in the preceding quarterfinal.
While fans and media are devouring the incredible ‘first-sinces’ and ‘first-evers’ Boisson is achieving, the 22-year-old is ignoring it all.
“I don't really think about what will be next, you know, the ranking, Wimbledon, and everything. I just try to stay focus in this tournament now,” she said.
“I really enjoy everything that I leave here on the court and outside the court… For now I just have to prepare the match [against Gauff] tomorrow.
“I stay in my zone. I stay focused on the tournament, so I don't really think about everything outside. I don't really watch the social media and everything.
“I will see all this kind of thing after the tournament.”
What makes this result so staggering is Boisson’s complete lack of experience at the elite level.
She is competing in her first Grand Slam main draw, and apart from a handful of appearances in Roland Garros qualifying in earlier years, she has never played at another Grand Slam venue – not even in junior competition.
The last player to make the semifinals on their Grand Slam debut? That was Jennifer Capriati, then 14, at Roland Garros in 1990.
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This time last year Boisson was poised to make her Slam debut in Paris as a wildcard, yet sustained an ACL injury two weeks earlier at a WTA 125K event in the same city which sidelined her for the rest of the year.
She showed promise on her return to the ITF circuit in February 2025 and made her tour-level debut at the WTA tournament in Rouen, winning a now infamous first-round match against Harriet Dart.
In her last hit-out before Roland Garros, then ranked outside the top 500, she won the ITF W75 title in Saint-Gaudens in early May.
What she has gone on to achieve at Roland Garros is beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, except perhaps her own.
“I don't think it's a miracle,” she declared. “For sure, I have a little bit of luck also, but I think it's just the hard work that I put since I started playing tennis and also last year with my rehab and everything.
“It's just result of hard work. Nothing else.”
France has been awaiting a success story on the women’s side at their home Slam.
That’s the view of men’s world No.1 Jannik Sinner, who – due to a shortage of covered courts on a rainy Tuesday in Paris – hit with Boisson on Chatrier ahead of their respective quarterfinal matches.
“It's amazing, no? I think that's exactly what France needs, something very new, very special,” said Sinner, who joined Boisson at the semifinal stage with a dominant win over Alexander Bublik.
“We actually were in the same centre for a little while back in the days, and we practised sometimes together even there. So I know her.
“I saw her before the tournament in the gym. We talked a little bit how things are, and she was very happy. Having a wildcard here, it's a special tournament for her, being French.
“I think the level she produces is amazing, no? Very consistent. Very claycourt style, with the forehand, a lot of topspin.”
In 2022 Caroline Garcia reached the US Open semifinals and returned to the top five, but the host nation has not had a presence this deep in the Roland Garros women’s event since 2017, when Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic both made the quarterfinals.
Since then it’s been tougher going for local women, and in 2025 only two – world No.72 Varvara Gracheva and 93rd-ranked Diane Parry – earned direct entry into the tournament.
Boisson is projected to leapfrog everyone and become the nation’s new No.1 woman, currently at 65th in the WTA live rankings.
She is the tournament’s first women’s singles semifinalist from France since Marion Bartoli 14 years ago, and is one victory away from becoming the nation’s first French women’s finalist since Mary Pierce 20 years ago.
Pierce was the last Roland Garros women’s singles champion representing France, back in 2000.
The pressure of home-nation expectation is often what’s attributed to earlier-than-expected losses in Paris.
But for Boisson, it’s the opposite.
“For me the crowd is really not something that put pressure on me, because they are with me,” she explained.
“It's just like I love to play with the crowd. I love to hear my name when I won a point and everything. For me it's just something plus… but I think it's also really difficult for other player from other country.
She continued: “[This tournament] is a dream. For sure I will go for the dream, because my dream is to win it, not to be in the semifinal.
“So I will try to do my best for it.”