Lois Boisson is the rookie who downed 2 top players. Will she make Grand Slam history?
Of course you don't. In all likelihood, you've never heard it before. Neither had most of the spectators in Paris, nor viewers around the world. Until last week, when the 22-year-old from Dijon, ranked 361 in the world, walked onto the blood red clay courts at Roland–Garros.
A fairytale run
Boisson waltzed into the semifinals of perhaps the most challenging Grand Slam event in the world on Wednesday night. She brushed aside Mirra Andreeva in the quarters—a player who ranks sixth in the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings—in straight sets. And to get there, Boisson had brutally smothered the Grand Slam–winning dreams of the 2024 US Open and WTA tour finalist, No 3 ranked Jessica Pegula, in round four. At the time, Pegula was only the second Top 60 player Boisson had played in her career. Her first was Elise Martins, ranked 24, who became her round one victim earlier in the week.
When Boisson beat Andreeva, she also became the first woman since Monica Seles (1989) to beat multiple top 10 players in her Slam debut.
Lois Boisson was granted a wild card into the main draw by the French Tennis Federation, as is the norm for home players at each Grand Slam event. The 22-year–old came into the tournament with no pressure or expectations, embracing the opportunity to play in front of her home crowd. But she has made the most of the moment.
Make no mistake, as the rounds have gone by, the pressure has only mounted, expectations have climbed, and belief has taken root among fans that something remarkable is unfolding in front of them. A miracle may be around the corner.
To call Boisson's entry into the semifinals unexpected would be an understatement—she is the first ever female wild card to reach the semifinals at the French Open in the Open Era. And it gets better.
Boisson is only the third woman in the last 40 years to reach a Grand Slam semifinal in her main-draw debut, matching feats by Monica Seles (1989) and Jennifer Capriati (1990), both at Roland–Garros. Both lost their respective semi-final matches, but Seles returned to win the title the following year.
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Makings of a top player
Like a certain Spaniard who has lifted the men's trophy a whopping 14 times, Boisson's game appears to be built for clay. She moves around her backhand to hit her forehand (like Rafael Nadal), and uses a heavy topspin that bites on clay. She also seems to have more time to set up and dictate the points, as gifted players do. And she has displayed characteristics key for sustained success—resilience and grit.
Boisson is mentally strong and tactically smart. Against Pegula, she lost the first set and looked completely outplayed. She was hitting too flat, leaving fans in despair. But she didn't give up—even when she was being dominated. She changed her game, using more spin and height to her shots. And the resultant bounce and spin on the clay paid off. Displaying this kind of adaptability mid-match is very unusual for someone with so little top–level experience. But then, that's how champions are made.
Will Lois Boisson be one? Time will tell. But comparisons are already being made with Emma Raducanu's remarkable US Open win in 2021. The similarities are striking, and yet clear differences emerge.
Raducanu didn't lose a set throughout her qualifying rounds and up to her title. But then, she also didn't really meet and beat the quality of opponents that Boisson has. Raducanu was also ranked 150 at the time of her win, had played top–level opponents a number of times before, and it was her second Grand Slam appearance. Boisson has not had a smooth run. Three of her five matches have gone the distance, and in two of them, she has come back from a set down.
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A match for the ages
Will Boisson go all the way and make history? In the semifinals on Thursday night, she will face No 2 seed Coco Gauff, who won all but one of her matches in this tournament in straight sets. She was a finalist at Roland–Garros in 2022, won the 2023 US Open, and made it to the Australian Open semifinals last year. Gauff has everything going for her: big match experience, the belief that she can win a Grand Slam, and the hunger to place a French Open trophy next to the 2022 runner-up plate on her mantelpiece.
But in Boisson, Gauff faces an opponent who will have 68 million voices cheering for her. She will meet a young woman whose confidence has grown every time she has walked onto the clay in the past 10 days.
As Gauff prepares to serve tonight, Lois Boisson will perhaps be reminding herself of Napoleon Bonaparte's words: 'Impossible is the word found only in a fool's dictionary. Wise people create opportunities for themselves and make everything possible.' And she will know that this is her opportunity to create Grand Slam history. No pressure.
Anindya Dutta is a sports columnist and author of 'Wizards: The Story of Indian Spin Bowling' and 'Advantage India: The Story of Indian Tennis'. He tweets @Cric_Writer. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
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