Wildest dream: France's Boisson heads to semis

French wild-card introduction Lois Boisson upset sixth-ranked Mirra Andreeva 7-6 (6), 6-3 connected Wednesday successful beforehand of a boisterous and mostly partisan assemblage astatine Roland Garros to scope the semifinals of the French Open.

Andreeva repeatedly showed her vexation with the crowd, arsenic excited fans chanted "Lois, Lois" betwixt points, waved tricolor flags, shouted during play and adjacent applauded the Russian teenager's errors.

The 22-year-old Boisson became the archetypal pistillate to scope the semifinals astatine her debut Grand Slam tourney since Jennifer Capriati astatine the 1990 French Open. Boisson is besides the archetypal women's chaotic paper to scope the French Open semifinals successful the Open epoch (since 1968).

She is besides the youngest French semifinalist astatine a Grand Slam since Amelie Mauresmo astatine Wimbledon successful 1999.

Boisson volition look No. 3 Coco Gauff successful the semifinals aft the American prima overcame sloppy play and dropping the archetypal acceptable to bushed Madison Keys 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-1.

The archetypal acceptable was marked by momentum swings and superb shot-making from some players. Boisson doubly recovered herself down a interruption but fought backmost each time, utilizing dense rotation and heavy groundstrokes to occupation her Russian opponent.

Andreeva grew visibly tense connected cardinal points, struggling to support her composure and wasting a accidental to adjacent retired the acceptable erstwhile up 5-3. Despite redeeming 3 acceptable points and forcing a tiebreaker, she yet handed the acceptable to Boisson with 2 consecutive backhand errors.

In the 2nd set, Andreeva responded powerfully and raced to a 3-0 lead. But Boisson broke backmost with a thunderous backhand victor down the line, drafting a roar of support from the lively crowd.

Andreeva received a informing aft netting a regular forehand volley and angrily hitting a shot into the stands. She past argued with the umpire implicit a telephone that gave Boisson a interruption point. On the adjacent point, Andreeva double-faulted and ne'er recovered.

At No. 361 successful the WTA rankings, Boisson is the third-lowest-ranked pistillate to scope the semifinals astatine a large successful the past 30 years. Kim Clijsters (2009 US Open) and Justin Henin (2010 Australian Open) were some unranked for their runs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.