Tamara Zidansek becomes first grand slam semifinalist from Slovenia

Tamara Zidansek (Carine Hosy, Wikimedia Commons)

Slovenian tennis history was made on Tuesday according to the Associated Press. In the quarterfinals of the 2021 French Open, Tamara Zidansek became the first Slovenian tennis player ever to reach the semifinals of a grand slam tennis tournament. Now you can add Zidansek’s name to among the greatest Slovenian athletes over the last decade.

Zidansek defeated Paula Badosa of Spain 7-5, 4-6, 8-6 in three grueling sets. The 23-year-old native of Postojna had a more accurate serve throughout the match. This was an area where Badosa struggled, as she had eight double faults.

Interestingly, this was not the women’s quarterfinal that went the deepest in the third set on Wednesday. That is because in the other women’s quarterfinal, 31st ranked Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia defeated Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, 6-7, 6-2, 9-7. Remember, the French Open still remains the only major of the four grand slams where you still have to win by two games in the deciding set.

Zidansek had a relatively favourable draw leading up to the semifinals. She only had to play one seeded player to reach the final four. In the first round, Zidansek upset the sixth seed, and 2019 United States Open champion Bianca Andreescu of Canada, 6-7, 7-6, 9-7. Andreescu was serving for the match in the third set, and was broken by Zidansek, who later broke Andreescu to win the match.

Following her first round exit from Roland Garros, Andreescu parted ways with her coach Sylvain Bruneau. During her first round loss to Zidansek, Andreescu seemed to lack some energy and appeared fatigued. She missed a large portion of the clay court season as she was recovering from coronavirus.

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