Semifinals set at 2023 French Open

Karolina Muchva (Carine06, Wikimedia Commons)

We now know the four players left in the men’s singles draw and the women’s singles draw at the 2023 French Open. In men’s action, the first seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain will play the third seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia in a much anticipated matchup. Meanwhile, the fourth seed Casper Ruud of Norway will play the 22nd seed Aleksander Zverev of Germany. In women’s action, the first seed and defending champion Iga Swiatek of Poland will play the 14th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil, and the second seed and Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will play Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic.

Alcaraz and Djokovic have faced each other only once in the past. Alcaraz won 6-7, 7-5, 7-6 in the semifinals of Madrid. Zverev has won two of three meetings against Ruud. However, no prior matches have been on clay.

Haddad Maia beat Swiatek in their only prior matchup. That was a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 win in the third round at the 2022 National Bank Open in Toronto. Meanwhile, Sabalenka beat Muchova in their only prior matchup. That was a 7-5, 7-6 Sabalenka win in the semifinals of the 2019 WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai. The women’s semifinals go Thursday and the men’s semifinals go Friday.

In quarterfinal action, Haddad Maia was the only player among the eight quarterfinal winners to beat a higher ranked player. Ranked 14th she beat the seventh seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia 3-6, 7-6, 6-1.

Muchova, who is 43rd in the world, is the only unseeded singles semifinalist at the 2023 French Open. Interesting in the quarterfinals, she beat another unseeded player, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, 7-5. 6-2. This is the fifth straight year an unseeded player made the French Open women’s semifinals. Prior players to accomplish the feat have been Amanda Anisimova of the United States and Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic (2019), eventual French Open champion Iga Swiatek of Poland and Nadia Podoroska of Argentina (2020), Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia and eventual champion Barbora Krejcikova of Czech Republic (2021), and Martina Trevisan of Italy (2022).

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