Tamara Zidansek defeats Paula Badosa 8-6 in final set to advance to the semi-finals

In the first quarterfinal match of this year’s French Open, it was a tight battle between Tamara Zidansek and Paula Badosa. After a grueling two hours and 26 minutes on court, it was Zidansek who would get the victory, taking the match in three sets 7-5, 4-6, 8-6 to advance to the semi-finals of Roland Garros.

This was the first career meeting between the two, as Tamara Zidansek now leads the head-to-head 1-0, and advances to her first career Grand Slam semi-final. She had never made it past the first round here at Roland Garros, but now finds herself within two matches of the title.

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The first set was all about who was better on the big points, as both players had plenty of opportunities to break in the set. Badosa would get six looks at a break point, but would only win three of those points, while Zidansek had five opportunities, and broke Badosa four times. The last break came in the final game of the set, as Zidansek broke on her second attempt in the game to take the set 7-5.

The second set was a lot of back and fourth, as they continued to break each other’s serve. Zidansek stuggled to win points on her second serve, winning just 11% of them, according to Infosys Match Centre, which led to three breaks of serve for Badosa. After the third break to go up 5-4, Badosa served it out to take the second set 6-4 and force a decider.

The third set was tight, as both players raised their level. Badosa broke early to go up 2-1, and was up 30-0 on her serve to go up 3-1, but Zidansek fought back in the game and broke Badosa, leveling the set at 2-2.

Both players would hold serve until 6-6 in the set, where Badosa had a big opportunity to break and serve for the match. Zidansek was down 15-40 in the game, giving Badosa two chances to break, but Badosa was unable to capitalize, bringing the game to deuce. Badosa would get one more chance in the game to break, but again Zidansek fought it off, proving to be the more clutch player on the court on Tuesday.

Zidansek would go on to hold serve, and then as Badosa served to stay in the match, Badosa would hit a couple unforced errors, giving Zidansek two match points. Zidansek would capitalize on the second one, hitting her 48th winner of the match to take the final set 8-6 and advance to the French Open semi-finals.

Next up for Tamara Zidansek in the semis will be the winner between Elena Rybakina and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.