Qualifier Podoroska continues historic run at French Open, advances to semifinals

The Argentine, who is ranked 131st and never had won a main draw Grand Slam match before last week, could hardly believe she won 6-2, 6-4 on Court Philippe Chatrier.

“Well, it’s a little bit difficult for me speaking after the match, my English is not so good,” Podoroska said on court. “Thank you everybody for your support. I’m very, very happy.”

Serving at 5-4 down, Svitolina saved two match points, the second with an audacious slice at the net to end a 27-shot rally.

But on the third match point, Podoroska hit a crisp forehand winner and then chucked her racket up toward the blue sky.

“Lots of things were not going my way,” Svitolina said. “I was not 100 per cent mentally on it today, and that was really disappointing.”

In a semifinal that could be even more remarkable, she could face another qualifier in Martina Trevisan of Italy, who also had not won a main draw match before this tournament. Trevisan was facing unseeded 19-year-old Iga Swiatek later Tuesday.

On a day of firsts, Danielle Collins reached the quarter-finals of the French Open for the first time after beating 30th-seeded Ons Jabeur 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

The unseeded American also could scarcely take it in when she won on her first match point.

When Jabeur’s forehand from the back of the court sank into the net, Collins’ loud scream of joy pierced the air. She fell onto her back with her hands over her face and stretched out her arms on the clay.

Collins played the U.S. Open without a coach last month, but for Roland Garros — where she had never been beyond the second round in two previous appearances — she reached out to Nicolas Almagro. The Spaniard was once ranked No. 9, and won all of his 13 career titles on outdoor clay.

“Nico and I started working with each other last week. I didn’t have a coach at the U.S. Open, so I tried to find somebody right away,” Collins said on court after her win. “Luckily I found somebody with an incredible record, who was a top 10 player.”

With Collins through, there will definitely be an American player in the semifinals since she next faces fourth-seeded Sofia Kenin, the Australian Open champion.

But Jabeur made Collins work harder than she might have expected after racing to 3-0 lead in the second set.

The powerful Tunisian then won the next five games, unsettling Collins with her ability to change directions and using her drop shot to good effect.

“I kind of felt like I was in the driver’s seat up until 6-4, 3-0. But she’s tricky and she served really well, she hit some drop shots on shots I wasn’t really expecting,” Collins said. “It broke my rhythm and I lost my way there a little bit. I just need to try to stay positive.”

The third set was uncertain.

After they dropped their first two service games for 2-2, Collins rallied back from 0-40 down on her serve to hold and then broke Jabeur for a 4-2 lead.

Not to be outdone, Jabeur — with her uncanny ability to wrongfoot Collins — broke back and a love hold made it 4-4.

After holding comfortably this time, Collins composed herself and won on her first match point.

There were two men’s quarter-finals scheduled on Chatrier: Third-seeded Dominic Thiem was playing No. 12 Diego Schwartzman and defending champion Rafael Nadal was taking on unseeded 19-year-old Jannik Sinner.