A brand new grand slam finalist is guaranteed from the bottom half of the draw after Novak Djokovic crashed out of the French Open on Wednesday morning (AEST).
The Serb, whose injury woes have seen him drop out of the top 20 for the first time since October 2006, suffered a surprise quarter-final defeat at the hands of little-known Italian Marco Cecchinato, who has now become the first man from his country to reach a major semi-final for four decades.
Prior to this tournament, the 25-year-old had never won a match at Grand Slam level, but broke his duck by coming from two-sets-to-love down to defeat Marius Copil in the first round.
He then claimed the scalps of Pablo Carreno Busta and David Goffin, both former quarter-finalists at Roland Garros, to earn his shot at Djokovic, whose most recent of his 12 majors came right here in 2016 when he completed his set of having won each of the four Grand Slam tournaments at least once.
The Djoker may have been the favourite, but the Italian, who won his first career title in Budapest earlier this year, sensed the occasion of playing a world-class player of his calibre to produce the performance of his life.
He took the opening set 6-3 and then saved a few set points to take the second in a tiebreak, and therefore take a two-sets-to-love lead and leave Djokovic facing down the barrel of yet another humiliating defeat at a major.
Novak Djokovic (AFP PHOTO / PAUL CROCK)
However, the former world number one would hit back hard, taking the third set for the loss of just one game, before the Italian held his nerve, again saving several set points in the fourth-set tiebreak to take it out 7-6 (13-11) and therefore secure his biggest win of his fledgling career.
In the semi-finals he will face Dominic Thiem, who had it much easier in his quarter-final against second seed Alexander Zverev, winning in straight sets to advance to his third consecutive semi-final at Roland Garros.
After a closely contested first set, Thiem took control in the second set courtesy of a double-break, during which Zverev took a medical time-out to receive treatment for a hamstring injury.
The German then wilted in the third, winning just one game to bow out of the French Open in disappointing fashion and again leave questions to be asked as to whether he is really a contender or a pretender at the majors.
Thiem, who has inflicted Rafael Nadal’s last two defeats on clay, will start the prohibitive favourite to make it third time lucky and reach his first Grand Slam final where the undisputed King of Clay is expected to await.
Nadal was due to play his quarter-final against Diego Schwartzman, whom he defeated in four sets at the Australian Open earlier this year, overnight. Former US Open champions Marin Cilic and Juan Martin del Potro were also due to do battle in the other top-half quarter-final.
In the women’s draw, an American is guaranteed to be represented in Saturday night’s (AEST) final, after Madison Keys and Sloane Stephens won their respective quarter-finals against Yulia Putintseva and Daria Kasatkina in straight sets.
Sloane Stephens (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
Keys came from a break down to advance to her first French Open semi-final, where her biggest obstacle to reaching her second major final will be an 0-2 record against her best friend, Stephens, who won their most recent meeting in the final of last year’s US Open by 6-3, 6-0.
The other two women’s quarter-finals were also due to be played overnight, with 2016 champion Garbine Muguruza coming up against two-time titlist Maria Sharapova, and top seed Simona Halep going up against Angelique Kerber at a major for the second consecutive time.
Both Muguruza and Sharapova had advanced to the quarter-finals in rather unusual circumstances.
The 24-year-old Spaniard won the first two games of her match against Lesia Tsurenko before the Ukrainian retired due to injury, while the 31-year-old Russian was spared a confrontation against Serena Williams after the American withdrew before their clash due to a pectoral injury.
The race for the women’s world number one ranking will hinge on how the top half quarter-finals are played out.
Despite having gone down to Daria Kasatkina in the fourth round, Caroline Wozniacki has the chance to reclaim the top ranking if Halep loses to Kerber in the quarter-final, and Muguruza does not reach the final.
At the time of this article going to print, Muguruza has a double break on Sharapova in the opening set, while Kerber has a single break on Halep, also in the opening set.
Both women’s semi-finals will be played this evening (AEST), while the men’s will take place the following night.
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