Unseeded French Open semifinalists becoming a trend

Mirra Andreeva (Google Images)

When Mirra Andreeva, the 17-year-old Russian phenom, made the semifinals of the 2024 French Open on Thursday, one might have thought it might have been an anomaly. However, in the last six years since 2019, there have been a total of nine unseeded women’s singles players who have made the semifinals of the French Open. In fact, Andreeva, the 38th ranked player in the world, just continued a miraculous trend.

Andreeva began the 2024 French Open with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Emina Bektas of the United States. That was followed by an impressive 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 win over two-time grand slam champion Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. Azarenka won the Australian Open in 2012 and 2013. Andreeva then clobbered American Peyton Stearns 6-2, 6-1 in the third round, Varvara Gracheva of France 7-5, 6-2 in the fourth round, and then upset world number two Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, the 2023 and 2024 Australian Open champion, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

Prior to Andreeva making the semifinals as an unseeded player, those to accomplish the feat in the women’s draw at the French Open since 2019 have been Amanda Anisimova of the United States (2019), Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic (2019), Iga Swiatek of Poland (2020), Nadia Podoroska of Argentina (2020), Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic (2021), Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia (2021), Martina Trevisan of Italy (2022), and Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic (2023). Swiatek won the French Open in 2020 and Krejcikova won the French Open in 2021.

There is no doubt that Andreeva is a player tennis fans need to keep an eye on. At 17 years of age, she became the youngest female grand slam semifinalist since Martina Hingis of Switzerland went to the women’s semifinals of the 1997 United States Open. Andreeva was 17 years, one month, and eight days. Hingis was 16 years, 11 months and eight days old when she won the 1997 United States Open.

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