Nadia Podoroska becomes first qualifier to reach French Open semis

The 23-year-old Podoroska will play Polish teenager Iga Swiatek or Italian qualifier Martina Trevisan for a place in Saturday's final.

Paris: Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska became the first qualifier in the Open era on Tuesday to reach the women’s semi-finals at Roland Garros after stunning third seed Elina Svitolina 6-2, 6-4.

World number 131 Podoroska had never won a Grand Slam main draw match before the tournament and is the first Argentine woman to reach the last four of a major since Paola Suarez in Paris in 2004.

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The 23-year-old Podoroska will play Polish teenager Iga Swiatek or Italian qualifier Martina Trevisan for a place in Saturday’s final.

“It’s a little bit difficult for me to speak now after the match,” said Podoroska, whose only other Grand Slam appearance came at the 2016 US Open.

“We did a very good job with my coaches during the (coronavirus) quarantine. I’ve been training a lot with all of my team I think that’s why I’m here today.”

It was the first time Podoroska had even faced a player inside the top 20, having started the year ranked a lowly 255.

Svitolina suffered a third quarter-final defeat in as many attempts at Roland Garros, having also lost at this stage in 2015 and 2017.

The Ukrainian hit just eight winners — the same number of times she dropped serve — as she slumped to her worst defeat at a major in terms of her opponent’s ranking.

Meanwhile, French prosecutors said on Tuesday they have opened an investigation into alleged match-fixing in a French Open women’s doubles encounter.

The probe concerns the first-round match on September 30 between Romanian pair Andreea Mitu and Patricia Maria Tig and Yana Sizikova of Russia playing with US player Madison Brengle, according to French sports daily L’Equipe and German newspaper Die Welt.

The game in question is the fifth of the second set won by love by the Romanian duo after Sizikova served two double faults.

L’Equipe reported large sums of money were bet on the Romanians winning the game in question and that the wagers were placed in several countries through Paris-based gambling outlets.

Prosecutors said they were probing alleged “fraud in an organised group” and “active and passive corruption in sport”.