Paris (EFE).- Another bombshell at Roland Garros, where Russian Diana Shnaider, who until this year had only won two matches in that tournament, qualified for the semifinals by surprising Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, last year’s finalist and world number 1, 3-6, 7-5 and 6-0.
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The left-handed player ranked 23rd will face the 114th-ranked player for a spot in the final, the Polish player, also left-handed, Maja Chwalinska, who reached the semifinals from the qualifying rounds after defeating the Russian Anna Kalinskaya, 25th in the world, 7-6(3) and 6-3.
Sabalenka starred in one of the most impressive collapses in tennis memory, going from dominating the match to saying goodbye with the first 6-0 she has conceded in over two years, four years on clay, on a cloudy and windy day at the Paris center court and against an opponent who had never before made it past the round of 16 of a ‘major’.
Unexpected defeat for Sabalenka
Unexpected defeat for the Belarusian, who until today had not dropped a set and was looking to claim her first crown in Paris and her fifth ‘major’, and who had the match under control after taking the first set and leading 5-3, with her serve in her favor, to close out the duel.
But at that moment the course of the match took a radical turn; the 22-year-old Russian, with her characteristic hair bandana, took more risks and loosened up her arm to put the world number 1 in trouble, who began to have doubts and wander the court fearfully.
Confidence shifted sides and Shnaider began to rack up points without her rival, looking more distraught by the minute, being able to win another game.
Sabalenka, who was seeking her 400th win on the circuit, a milestone that only six active tennis players have, was left at the gates of her sixth consecutive Grand Slam semifinal.
But she fell victim to the epidemic of favorites affecting this Roland Garros, which had already seen the defending champion, American Coco Gauff, the world number 2, Kazakh Elena Rybakina, and the Polish Iga Swiatek, a four-time winner in Paris, fall before her.
With her defeat, Sabalenka leaves the Russian Mirra Andreeva, the eighth seed at 19 years old, as the highest-ranked survivor. She will face the Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, world number 15 and 23 years old.
Shnaider, for her part, will face a qualifier in a battle of left-handers, world number 114, who became the sixth player to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam from the qualifying rounds, the second in Paris six years after the Argentine Nadia Podoroska.
