Jasmine Paolini produced a valiant effort to stun 4th seed` Elena Rybakina to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final at the French Open.
The Italian 12th seed Paolini won 6-2 4-6 6-4 against the Kazakh world number 4 in just over two hours on a windy Court Philippe-Chatrier.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” said Paolini, who will face either Russian Mirra Andreeva or Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-finals, with the pair playing later on Wednesday.
Paolini was playing in her first Grand Slam quarter-final on the back of an impressive season in which she won her maiden WTA 1000 title in Dubai, shooting her into the top 15 for the first time in her career.
Former Wimbledon champion Rybakina, 24, was one of the handful of players that could challenge Iga Swiatek for the title but she was left stunned by a composed performance by the diminutive Italian she had beaten twice before.
Paolini’s performance against Rybakina – who she beat for the second time in her nine-year career – won the backing of the Paris crowd, who cheered throughout her tenacious performance.
“It was a tough match. I was a bit too emotional in the second set,” said Paolini.
“I just tried to stay there every point, to forget what happened in the second set. I managed to come back and I just accept that and fight again. Thank you, guys, thank you very much for cheering for me” she said in her post-match interview.