Published on : 08/06/2021 – 15:09Modified : 08/06/2021 – 15:20
The quarter-finals begin this Tuesday at Roland-Garros. The German Alexander Zverev has the opportunity to win his first semi-final at Roland Garros against the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. The poster for the night session will see a top game between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev. Find the highlights of the day.
Last straight for Roland-Garros. This Tuesday, June 8 will be known the names of the first two qualified in the semi-finals for women and men. The day will end with a duel at the top between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev to reach the last four.
• Tamara Zidansek, first Slovenian to reach a Grand Slam semi-final
At 23, Slovenian Tamara Zidansek, 85th player in the world, qualified for her very first Grand Slam semi-final by defeating Spain’s Paula Badosa (35th) in three sets 7-5, 4-6 , 8-6.
Zidansek will face the Kazakhe Elena Rybakina (22nd) or the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (32nd), which must be decided in the afternoon on the Philippe-Chatrier court.
The Slovenian had never passed the second round in the Grand Slam before this 2021 edition of Roland-Garros. She is the first player from her country to reach a major semi-final.
“I am very, very happy,” she said as her team jubilated loudly in the stands.
Faced with Badosa, after a shy start to the match which earned her two breaks behind (3-0), the Slovenian player made use of her sense of timing and anticipation, as well as her solid defense, to maneuver the Spanish, disrupting her powerful strikes and reversing the course of the first set.
She even escaped 4 games to 2 in the second. But Badosa then recovered and imposed his strike force to make six games in a row. A series which allowed him to equalize in one round everywhere, and to break the entry in the third set. His lead was short-lived. Zidansek immediately recovered to 2-2.
At 6 games across, Badosa appeared in the best position to snatch the win when she got three break points in an extended play. But the Slovenian dismissed them with panache, and the next game, it was she who seized the service of her opponent to win after almost two and a half hours of the match.
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