How to see: 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the tennis channel and 11 a.m. on NBC; Streaming on the Tennis Channel App and the NBCSN App.
Two first-time semi-finalists at Roland Garros will meet, while two Grand Slam champions will meet in the other game on Philippe Chatrier Court. All four players are looking for their first appearance in a French Open final. With the guarantee that a first-time French Open champion will be crowned, the nerves may be nervous, but the quality of tennis is sure to be superb.
The following should be noted in the semi-finals on Thursday:
Because of the number of games running through the courts, the times for individual games are at best a guess and will certainly fluctuate based on the times the earlier game was completed. All times are east.
PHILIPPE CHATRIER COURT | 9 am
Iga Swiatek vs. Nadia Podoroska
19 year old Swiatek had an exceptional French Open. She reached both the singles and doubles semi-finals with little resistance. She has not lost a set in her nine games in both competitions and played in doubles with Nicole Melichar from the USA. Swiatek seemed quite at home in cold weather and on clay, their preferred surface.
Swiatek’s game is fractal, with each facet seemingly hiding a different level of creativity. Even if their ball placement is the most constant part of their game, a strong backhand across the board can turn any opponent on their head who would prefer to do longer rallies with angled rallies.
Podoroska is the first qualification to reach a women’s semi-finals at the French Open in the Open era, and the first to have done so at a Grand Slam event since Alexandra Stevenson at Wimbledon in 1999. In her quarter-final win against Elina Svitolina the third seed Podoroska often went to court and disrupted the time it took Svitolina to start her powerful ground strokes.
No qualifier has ever reached a men’s or women’s Grand Slam final, so this would be a remarkable achievement for Podoroska. But in her own way is Swiatek, who said that it made her more confident not to play wildcard tournaments as a promising junior, knowing that if she made it to this point, she would deserve it. That belief in herself could easily put her on the biggest stage against a former Grand Slam champion from the other half of the draw.
PHILIPPE CHATRIER COURT | 10:30 am
Sofia Kenin versus Petra Kvitova
Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, is now the highest remaining seed in the women’s draw. Despite being pushed to three sets in most games, it seemed impossible to work past her backhand. Kenin has the ability to hit hard, driven groundstrokes or use the same backswing to get perfect drop shots so opponents can’t adjust properly before they have to quickly change direction.
Kvitova, the Wimbledon champion in 2011 and 2014, has only reached her second French Open semi-finals. With a relatively easy draw, she has to drop one more sentence on the way to the quarter-finals. Kvitova tends to enjoy fast-paced surfaces that match their fast serves and flattened base strokes.
At this year’s French Open, the bounces were unusually low in colder weather, which favored Kvitova’s style of play. But she hasn’t faced an opponent like Kenin who is able to change the tempo of her shots. Kvitova may be the more experienced player, but Kenin had a better year with a 16-1 record at Grand Slam events in 2020.
Expect that due to Kenin’s superior move, expect Kvitova to try to punch through the ball a little more than in their previous games. The mental game will be ubiquitous as both players know that the winner will be favored in a final over an opponent who has not so far flown so high before.
