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Paris – And then there were four. It’s semifinal time in Paris, and the women will take center stage with a pair of blockbuster matchups, highlighted by the semifinal we were all waiting for when the draw took place three days before the main draw began.
See the full Day 12 Order of Play here
Let’s look at the matchups:
Iga Swiatek vs Aryna Sabalenka
Head-to-Head: Swiatek leads 8-4 Head-to-Head on clay: Swiatek leads 5-1
Iga Swiatek has the decided edge over Aryna Sabalenka in their lifetime rivalry, and on her favorite surface, but when taken in context, there is a reason that oddsmakers see Thursday’s clash as a tossup. Sabalenka has been the better player in 2025, and she even enters this match having won more clay titles than Swiatek this season.
But that title was won in Madrid, at altitude, where Sabalenka has won three times. The Belarusian hasn’t been able to parlay either of her previous two Madrid titles into a Roland-Garros title, but she’ll try to take advantage of her experience and confidence to finally get over the hump against the most dominant clay-courter in the women’s game on Thursday.
Swiatek entered Roland-Garros with a 6-3 record on clay, but she has turned things around neatly on the Parisian clay, winning five matches, including a very tricky fourth round battle with Elena Rybakina, where she lost eight of the first nine games.
Perhaps that growing self-belief has been enough to remove the cracks that appeared in Swiatek’s armor when she lost decisively to Jelena Ostapenko, Coco Gauff and Danielle Collins on the road to Roland-Garros.
Or maybe it is finally time for Sabalenka to expand her empire to the red clay of Paris?
No matter what happens, Sabalenka will make the most of this experience.
“I love it,” she said on Tuesday after taking out Zheng Qinwen in the quarterfinals. “I love tough challenges. I think these are the matches where you actually improve as a player and where you get much stronger. So I love those challenges. And I am always excited to face someone strong and then someone who can challenge me.”
The pair have developed a better friendship after joining forces in a TikTok video last year at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, at Sabalenka’s behest. But the rivalry remains intense.
“For sure our rivalry is pushing both of us,” Swiatek said, “but it's not only about the level of tennis. It's about everything, how we work, and how professional we are. So I can say that for sure."
Coco Gauff vs Lois Boisson
Head-to-Head: First meeting
22-year-old wild card Lois Boisson is the talk of the talk of the French sporting world on Wednesday, after the World No.361 upset Mirra Andreeva to reach the semifinals on her Grand Slam main draw debut.
Shades of Emma Raducanu, as the virtual unknown, who entered the Paris fortnight with two main draw matches to her name, has become only the second ever woman in the last 40 years to beat multiple top 10 opponents at her maiden Grand Slam. Monica Seles did the same in Paris in 1989
Boisson, a buffed specimen who hurts her opponent with heavy topspin, has a current live ranking of No.65 after Wednesday's quarterfinal win. If she beats No.2-seeded Coco Gauff in the semifinals on Thursday she’ll be in the world’s Top 35. At the start of the tournament,
Boisson was the French No.24. Next Monday when the new WTA rankings are released she will be the new French No.1.
She'll face a 21-year-old who knows a thing or two about insta-stardom. Gauff reached the round of 16 on her Grand Slam debut as a 15-year-old in 2019
Six years later the American is two wins from her second major title. She defeated Madison Keys from a set down on Wednesday. It was not the cleanest performance but it was more proof of the Florida native's ability to win without her best tennis.