The four semifinalists in the men’s and women’s draw have been determined at the 2026 French Open. On Wednesday, there were two stunning upsets in the women’s draw. First, Maja Chwalinska of Poland shocked the tennis world by becoming the sixth qualifier ever to reach the semifinals of a grand slam when she upset world number 22 Anna Kalinskaya of Russia, 7-6, 6-3. Then Diana Shnaider of Russia upset the world number one Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, 3-6, 7-5, 6-0.
Many expected a Polish player to be in the women’s semifinals. No one expected it to be the 114th ranked player in the world rather than Iga Swiatek, the four-time French Open champion who was knocked out in the fourth round. Meanwhile, Sabalenka simply beat herself, and was impacted by the extreme windy conditions in France. As a result, Sabalenka lost 12 of the last 13 games in the match, and incredibly had 57 unforced errors.
Remember, the women’s semifinals go Thursday instead of Friday. Shnaider will now play Chwalinska in one of two matches. Shnaider won their only prior meeting, 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals of Istanbul in 2022. The other women’s semifinal has Mirra Andreeva of Russia, the eighth seed, against the 15th seed, Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine. Kostyuk recently beat Andreeva 6-3, 7-5 in the final of Madrid.
On the men’s side, Alexander Zverev of Germany is the clear favourite to win his first grand slam title. He will face Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic in one of two semifinals on Friday. The other semifinal will be an all-Italian matchup between Flavio Cobolli and Matteo Arnaldi.
