Spurred on by the vocal support of her coaching team on Court Philippe Chatrier, the 85th-ranked Zidansek defeated Spanish rival Paula Badosa 7-5, 4-6, 8-6 Tuesday at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n
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"It feels overwhelming," she said.<\/p>\n
Zidansek's next opponent at the clay-court event will be Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, another first-time semifinalist.<\/p>\n
Pavlyuchenkova came out on top of an other tense battle to rally past her doubles partner Elena Rybakina 6-7 (2), 6-2, 9-7. The 31st-seeded Russian had lost at this stage 10 years ago at Roland Garros and was 0-6 in Grand Slam quarterfinals before taking to the court.<\/p>\n
"Mentally it was really, really hard this morning," she said. "Especially since I needed to play Elena. But this is tennis, we both wanted to win. The key was to be able to return her serve."<\/p>\n
Pavlyuchenkova did it well and converted six of 17 break points against her rival and friend.<\/p>\n
Six of the eight women's quarterfinalists at this year's French Open had never made it so far at a Grand Slam tournament, including Zidansek, Badosa and Rybakina.<\/p>\n
"I couldn't control the nerves during the entire match," Badosa said.<\/p>\n
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Her match with Zidansek featured 15 breaks of serve, and they hit a combined total of 86 unforced errors. Rybakina, who upset Serena Williams in the previous round, struggled with her serve throughout.<\/p>\n
When asked to reflect on her win, Zidansek said: "I guess I managed to keep my composure today a little bit better than her."<\/p>\n
After splitting the first two sets, Badosa violently threw her racket in anger at the changeover after Zidansek held for a 6-5 lead in the third. She regained her composure but Zidansek then saved three break points to take a 7-6 lead and converted her second match point with a big forehand in the next game.<\/p>\n
![\"Pavlyuchenkova\u00a0outlasts\u00a0Pliskova\u00a0in\u00a0mammoth\u00a0third\u00a0set\"](\"https:\/\/vms-network-images-prod.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com\/2021\/06\/363307\/pickerImage.jpg\")
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In perfect weather conditions, both players pulled off some spectacular winners but also hit a lot poor shots.<\/p>\n
"I didn't feel myself in the whole match," Badosa said. "I'm a little bit sad about that, because I think I played maybe the worst match of the tournament and of the clay season, but sometimes it's like that."<\/p>\n
Badosa applied pressure from the start with a flurry deep groundstrokes from the baseline. The strategy worked as Zidansek dropped her first service game and then trailed 3-0. But an error-strewn game from Badosa gave her rival a break and a boost.<\/p>\n
Zidansek started to return better and went for her shots, linking attacks with bold moves at the net to even the score at 3-3. Badosa saved a set point in the 12th game with a forehand attack but could not fend off the second as her poor drop shot ended up in the net.<\/p>\n
Badosa trailed 4-2 in the second set after a series of unforced errors but Zidansek could not build on the momentum and struggled with her serve, too.<\/p>\n
The Spaniard rallied, made the decisive break in the ninth game at love and sealed the set with a big forehand.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old Zidansek, a three-time national junior snowboarding champion in Slovenia, opened this year's tournament by upsetting seventh-seeded Bianca Andreescu in the first round for her first career win over a top-10 player. In that match, she was two points from defeat in both the second and third sets.<\/p>\n
Zidansek reached a career-high ranking of No. 56 in June 2019.<\/p>\n
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