French Open women's semifinals: Iga Swiatek's serve and what next for Lois Boisson
Welcome to the French Open briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.
On day 12 at Roland Garros, one of the most remarkable streaks in modern tennis ended, a home hope looked forward and a doubles winner had to take a tough loss.
Reflecting on the brilliance of a streak that ended in a 0-6 set right after losing that set is a tough ask, but it's exactly what Iga Świątek did following her defeat to Aryna Sabalenka in the French Open semifinals.
'I love playing here, so for sure I'm happy that I was fortunate enough to play so many great tournaments here. Even this one, you know, I feel like I played better than weeks before,' she said in her news conference.
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'So for sure, I'm just happy that I have this place to come back to every year and just try to push myself.'
Before her last-four loss, Świątek had won 26 French Open matches in a row.
She had entered this year's event as she has every event this season: with the ambition to win it while ingraining fundamental changes to her tennis, alongside coach Wim Fissette. During an interview with The Athletic earlier this year, Świątek explained that the evolution she wants in her tennis — playing with more shape, and ultimately variety, after a series of losses in which she hit the ball too flat under pressure and made mistakes — will only become apparent over a longer period.
'It's hard to see the changes because they're little. I know. They only seem big on a bigger horizon,' she said.
She now has a long period of the season in which she has very few ranking points to defend, in which she will be able to test and iterate on ideas without the pressure of 4,000 points on her back, which she had carried through the Madrid Open, the Italian Open and Roland Garros. One of those ideas will need to enhance one shot: Her serve. Calling it a weakness is overstating the case, but in her match against Sabalenka, the ease with which the world No. 1 could steal free points in comparison to Świątek was eye-opening.
It is hard to win free points on clay, especially against a returner as imperious and opportunistic as Sabalenka. But having a first serve that wins the point less than one time out of two, as Świątek managed in the opening set, is just not enough for someone of her standing in the sport. In her previous match against Elina Svitolina, she ended proceedings with three aces in one game. The small changes are there. They may only seem big on a bigger horizon
James Hansen
Whither Loïs Boisson?
Good question.
A few weeks ago, she probably figured she'd play a match or two at Roland Garros and then return to the ITF circuit, where she is 14-6 on the year, to try and reach the top 100. She's there now, in the 60s, after going from French No. 24 to French No. 1 in the space of a fortnight. She can think about some different tournaments, and maybe even a wild card into Wimbledon. At the very least there will be qualifying for SW19.
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'Of course the program will change. It won't be what was planned at the beginning, considering my upcoming ranking,' Boisson said. But she's not planning any other changes to her team or her life: 'It works well, and I don't see why I would change much.'
Coco Gauff, who knows something about sudden exposure had some words of advice for her about the spotlight, especially given the dearth of top French women. She should stay true to herself and what the people around her expect, not anyone else.
'I think she has her head on her right shoulders,' Gauff said. 'It's going to be probably a weird few months for her, but I think the more it happens, the more you get used to it.'
Matt Futterman
Taylor Townsend and, well, anyone is turning out to be a pretty formidable mixed-doubles team.
Townsend partnered Donald Young to the mixed doubles final at the U.S. Open in September, long after everyone figured Young had left tennis behind. They lost in the final to Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori of Italy, which is becoming a bit of a tough draw for Townsend in mixed doubles.
This week in Paris, she partnered Evan King, who had had a fine but unremarkable doubles career until the past few months. King, 33, joined up with fellow American Christian Harrison at the back end of the 2024 season, and the duo has been on a tear in 2025, winning two titles and 24 matches together to enter the top three of the ATP Doubles Race to Turin, in which the eight best pairs of the year compete.
King and Harrison are in the men's doubles semifinals, where they will face British pair Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski, but Townsend and King went to the final of the mixed doubles. They lost, as is becoming a bit too familiar to Townsend, to Errani and Vavassori.
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Townsend also continued her women's doubles partnership with Kateřina Siniaková. They won Wimbledon last year and Australian Open in January, which made them the top seeds in Paris but lost in the quarterfinals.
Matt Futterman
Tell us what you noticed on the 12th day…
(Top photo of Iga Świątek: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic)
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