Coco Gauff vs. Lois Boisson: Will France’s Cinderella actually reach the final?

“Pristine” is not a word that comes to mind to describe Wednesday’s women’s quarterfinals at Roland Garros.

In a nervy, topsy-turvy, largely rhythmless opener, Coco Gauff and Madison Keys combined for 40 winners and 101 errors, and broke each other 14 times. Both players were tense and prone to mistakes early; playing a countrywoman in a Grand Slam quarterfinal will do that to you. But only one of them, Gauff, managed to cut those errors out as the match progressed. By the third set, she’d returned to the lockdown mode that has served her so well at this tournament in recent years.

“I’m very happy with how I managed to fight today,” a relieved Gauff said after her . “It was a tough match. Madison is a tough opponent, but glad to be in the semis.”

“I wasn’t feeling the ball obviously to start the match,” she said, but a change in racquet tension helped. “Usually if you're playing too passive, in the end the more aggressive player is going to win. I was just trying to be aggressive.”

The second quarterfinal, between Biosson and Mirra Andreeva, was of somewhat higher quality, through both made more mistakes than winners. The ugliness came in the second set, when the 18-year-old Andreeva, regularly booed by the capacity French crowd, came unglued, smashed her leg with her racquet, bashed a ball high into the seats and watched a 3-0 lead turn into a .

“I didn’t really pay attention to the [booing], but obviously with nerves and with pressure, it became a little harder,” Andreeva said. “But, anyway, I think that I can learn from this, so nothing more I can say for now.”

Andreeva credited Boisson’s good play for her win, which is only appropriate. The 22-year-old, 361st-ranked Frenchwoman has lit up the tournament with one of—if not the most—improbable runs in Grand Slam history. By now, though, after seeing the way she has gone about beating two Top Tenners, Jessica Pegula and Andreeva, back to back, the element of shock over’s Boisson’s performances should be waning. Her game—physical, spin-based, forehand-centric—is the embodiment of how tennis has been played in this decade. She can hit her serve with flat pace or a high-bouncing kick. She sets up points to feature her forehand, and she loves to take it inside-in for blistering winners. She adds slice and finesse with her backhand.

“She has a great serve,” Andreeva said. “She has a great forehand. I think she hit a lot of winners with her forehand today. I think that she also played solid and consistent throughout the whole match.”

Boisson vs. Gauff is a great unknown. It’s the rare Slam semifinal in which the two players have never met—by contrast, the other semi will give us the 13th encounter between Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek.

We can start by saying that Gauff is ranked No. 2 and Boisson, as we all know by now, is 361st. But that 361 is somewhat misleading; she has climbed as high as 152, and surely would have moved higher if not for an injury. Still, Gauff has a huge edge in experience, especially on big stages.

Game-wise, the match will likely be defined by high, heavy topspin exchanges that may go on at length. Boisson hits with a lot of topspin on both sides, and Gauff does with her forehand. One dynamic to watch: When Boisson runs around and cracks her forehand inside-out, can Gauff counter that with her flat two-handed backhand down the line? Andreeva had some success doing that on Wednesday, but not enough.

Both women can and will disrupt the points with drop shots, but both are quick enough to track them down. Look for a fair amount of cat and mouse after they’ve drawn each other up to the net. Boisson’s serve looks more reliable. Avoiding a cascade of double faults will be crucial for Gauff, but if her serve is clicking, it will make her more confident all around.

As for the Lois-loving fans, Gauff says she’s ready for whatever they bring, citing other matches in other countries where she has handled a hostile audience.

“I think there are two ways I have done it in the past,” Gauff says. “Either, A, just pretend they’re cheering for you, and B, just using it and not letting that get to you.”

Gauff and Boisson seem close to evenly matched at the moment. Coco has been here before, and she would likely beat the Frenchwoman in any other place, at any other time. But this week. Boisson is a home-town Cinderella. The old tennis axiom is that a hot-hitting player will eventually show you why they’re ranked where they’re ranked. I waited for that to happen to Boisson against Pegula, and again versus Andreeva. It hasn’t happened yet. Winner: Boisson