Lois Boisson Aims for Fulfillment of Her Dream After Scripting History at French Open

Lois Boisson knocked out two top players to schedule a semifinal clash with World No.2 Coco Gauff.

Lois Boisson Aims for Fulfillment of Her Dream After Scripting History at French Open

Lois Boisson (Image via X/Serigne Fallou)

Coco Gauff has progressed to her second straight French Open semifinal after overcoming Madison Keys. She is now pitted against home favorite Lois Boisson, who went past Mirra Andreeva in straight sets.

The Frenchwoman is playing in her maiden Grand Slam tournament. Before this year, she got knocked out of the qualifying rounds thrice in the event. She hasn’t yet appeared as a qualifier in the other three Grand Slam events.

Boisson has now become the youngest French semifinalist since Amelie Mauresmo (who is now serving as a French Open director) in a Grand Slam event. She is also the first semifinalist from her country in the tournament since Marion Bartoli (in 2011), and the first wild card to reach the last four in the Open Era.

Gauff has never met Boisson before. En route to scheduling the clash with the 2023 US Open champion, Boisson eliminated three seeded players, including two top 10 ones: World No. 3 Jessica Pegula in the fourth round and No.6 Andreeva two days later.

But Boisson is not playing in the tournament to reach only the semifinals. Now that she has made strong progress, she wants to continue her fairytale run to reach the final and clinch the trophy to make history.

I think every kid who plays tennis has the dream to win a Slam. For French players, even more, to win Roland Garros. It’s a dream for sure. I will go for the dream. My dream is to win it. Not to be in the semifinal.

Lois Boisson said at the press conference

Boisson has now become the third player in the history of women’s tennis to progress to a Grand Slam semifinal in her main draw debut after Monica Seles in 1980 and Jennifer Capriati in 1989 and 1990. The 22-year-old is the fourth player in the Open Era to advance to her first tour-level semifinal at the French Open.

Mirra Andreeva says rankings don’t show reality after her defeat to Lois Boisson

Mirra Andreeva was chasing her first Grand Slam title of her career. Before this, she had reached the Major semifinal just once, in the 2023 French Open.

Lois Boisson
Lois Boisson (via The Tennis Channel)

Andreeva knew that if a player, that too outside of the top 300, made a deep run in a Grand Slam tournament, she was not to be taken lightly. She ignored Lois Boisson’s ranking while preparing for the match because she believed the 22-year-old was a better player than her ranking of No.361 shows.

I know she was like 150, but then she had an injury. So, I knew that ranking is ranking. You know, whether you are ranked five in the world or 300 in the world, I think the match can be tough, and it can be more or less at the same level. So, I didn’t pay much attention to the ranking. I just knew how she was going to play.

Mirra Andreeva said at the press conference

Boisson reached a career-high ranking of 152 last year but suffered from a knee injury which forced her to delay her main draw debut at the French Open. Last year, skipped the rest of the season after her exit in the WTA 125K event in Saint-Malo and before this year’s French Open, she played only two tournaments, losing both without making deep runs.

If Boisson beats Gauff, she will become the third woman in the past four years to reach the Roland Garros final as an unseeded player after Barbora Krejcikova in 2021 and Karolina Muchova in 2023. Both the players beat their respective opponents to win the tournament.

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