(Paris) Beatriz Haddad Maia completed another winning comeback at the French Open on Wednesday after beating Ons Jabeur 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-1 to become the first Brazilian player since 1968 to reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam tournament.
Haddad Maia, 14th seed, shrugged off a slow start against Jabeur on the Philippe-Chatrier court en route to victory. She will face in the next round the winner of the duel between the favorite, Iga Swiatek, and the American Coco Gauff.
After playing a nearly four-hour match against Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo in the fourth round, Haddad Maia won just one service game in the first set. She did, however, save the two break points offered to her opponent in the next set — both occurred in the 11th game, when the score could go to 6-5 — and she won the break point. equality.
The 27-year-old Brazilian started the deciding set with two breaks to quickly build a 3-0 lead. Jabeur, the seventh seed, then lost patience and threw her racquet skyward after missing a backhand that would have lost her to save the break as she trailed 1-4. Haddad Maia finally won the game, and sealed the outcome of the meeting in the next game.
Jabeur was a finalist at Wimbledon and the US Open last year.
Haddad Maia has become the first Brazilian player of the modern era to reach the semi-finals at Roland-Garros. Marie Bueno found herself in the semi-finals at the 1966 French Open, and in the 1968 United States Open.
Swiatek will face Gauff later today on the Philippe-Chatrier court, in a replay of last year’s final won by the Pole in two sets. Swiatek, 22, has topped the women’s world rankings for over a year.
Meanwhile, Ontario’s Bianca Andreescu and her Australian playing partner Michael Venus advanced to the mixed doubles final after beating Ontario’s Gabriela Dabrowski and her American teammate Nathaniel Lammons 7-6 (5), 7 -6 (4).
Andreescu and Venus will face Japan’s Miyu Kato — who was fined earlier this week for accidentally hitting a ball attendant in the neck with a ball — and Germany’s Tim Puez in the final.
Then, a little later today, Quebecer Leylah Annie Fernandez and her American playing partner Taylor Townsend will face Taiwanese Latisha Chan and Chan Hao-ching in the women’s doubles quarterfinals.
