Preview: Will Paris keep dreaming with Boisson, or is the run about to end?

Grand Slam wild cards, to be fair, are usually an attempt to produce a homefield advantage. They often go to promising young national players or stars who have dropped in the rankings because of age or injury.

Almost by definition, wild cards are not expected to win matches.

This year, six of the French Tennis Federation’s eight women’s wild cards unsurprisingly went to French players. Three of them, however, won their opening matches. Two of them -- Lois Boisson and Elsa Jacquemot -- won twice and played each other in the third round. 

And then Boisson came back Monday to defeat World No. 3 Jessica Pegula in three sets on Court Philippe Chatrier with most of the 15,000 slowly losing their minds for the better part of three hours.

Roland Garros: Draws | Scores | Order of play

“For sure I will not believe that if you tell me that two weeks ago,” Boisson told reporters afterward. “Now it’s that, and I’m so happy about it.”

The last time a Frenchwoman made the quarterfinals in Paris was 2017, when Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic both managed it. At the age of 22 years, Boisson is the third youngest French player to reach the quarterfinals at the French Open, older only than Mary Pierce in 1994 and Brigitte Simon in 1978.

A year ago, Boisson was awarded a wild card into the French Open main draw and, horrifically, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee a week before the tournament began. After nine months of intense rehabilitation, Boisson finally collected that wild card, arriving in Paris for her first Grand Slam main draw at No. 361 in the PIF WTA Rankings.

On Wednesday, she’ll have the chance to advance to the semifinals, opposite Mirra Andreeva. The other quarterfinal from the bottom half of the draw features two Americans who were actually supposed to get there, No. 2 Coco Gauff and No. 7 Madison Keys.

Let’s take a closer look:

No. 6 Mirra Andreeva vs. wild card Lois Boisson

Head-to-head: 0-0.

Before her warmup for the Pegula match, Boisson had stood on Court Philippe Chatrier only once, four years ago when she snagged a practice session before trying to qualify.

Four matches into her first Grand Slam main draw, Boisson returned to Chatrier and initially appeared overmatched by the moment. But then a curious thing happened. Her booming forehand began to find the court, and by the end of her stunning 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory, she looked like she belonged.

Andreeva, four years younger than Boisson, already knows the feeling -- she reached the semifinals here a year ago. Boisson is well aware.

“Yes,” she told reporters, “it’s a different type of game. She varies her game much more. She has a very good backhand. She’s very solid on both sides. I believe I will have to expect a lot of difficult rallies. 

“But it will not change my game plan probably. I might adapt a few details, but I'm not going to change.”

Boisson’s unlikely victory set off an avalanche of statistics. Boisson is:

• Only the second wild card to make the quarters at Roland Garros in the Open Era, after the legendary Mary Pierce in 2002.
• Moved up 241 spots in the live rankings -- to No. 120 -- and a win against Andreeva would push her inside No. 75.
• The first player to reach her first career WTA-level quarterfinal at a Grand Slam event since Emma Raducanu at the US Open 2021.

Earlier, Andreeva was a 6-3, 7-5 winner over No. 17 seed and good friend Daria Kasatkina. She’s created a number of notable benchmarks herself. Andreeva is:

• The youngest player to reach back-to-back women’s quarterfinals at Roland Garros since Martina Hingis (1997-1998).
• The youngest player to reach these women’s quarterfinals in two of her first three main-draw appearances at the event since Jennifer Capriati (1990 and 1992).
• Currently 22-8 in Grand Slam events (.733) and could surpass her coach Conchita Martinez for winning percentage at the majors.

And Andreeva’s already much better than she was a year ago when she made the final four.

“I would say that obviously I think I have improved physically,” Andreeva said. “I think I am much stronger than I was two years ago. Also, I feel like I think in a different way compared to, again, maybe two years ago. I’m much more positive right now on the court, and I think that also is one of the keys for me.”

No. 2 Coco Gauff vs. No. 7 Madison Keys

Head-to-head: Keys, 3-2, winning their only previous meeting on clay in the Round of 16 at Madrid last year. Gauff won their only match at a Grand Slam, at the 2022 US Open.

“Maddie, I have known her for a long time,” Gauff told reporters. “I remember, I think it was maybe Miami Open, I was shadowing her as a junior. I sat at one of her Kindness Wins foundation events and things like that.

“I don’t know if she remembers that.”

Keys places their first meeting when Gauff was nine, or maybe a few years older.

“She was so young and not even on the pro tour yet,” Keys said. “And just kind of watching her play, I knew that she was going to be someone that was going to be pretty dominant pretty quickly. She just carried herself with such poise, for as young as she is. 

“Even to this day, I’m always so impressed by the way that she handles the pressure and all of it at such a young age. It’s one of the things that I think she had done a phenomenal job at.”

Keys handled fellow American Hailey Baptiste 6-3, 7-5, while Gauff defeated No. 20 Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-0, 7-5.

Gauff was a Roland Garros finalist in 2022 and is coming off back-to-back finals in Madrid and Rome. 

“I have learned in the last two tournaments, losing the opening set in the first round of both of those tournaments and making the final,” Gauff said. “It just shows you have to keep fighting for every match and keep fighting for every point, because anything can happen in a tournament.”

It’s not surprising that Keys calls clay Gauff’s best surface, because of her speed and defense.

“Knowing with her ability to cover the court,” Keys said, “you’re going to have to win the point multiple times before it’s actually over. I think that’s always one of the trickier things when you’re playing someone who moves as well as she does. 

“The biggest thing is the balance of going for things, but with enough margin that it's a repeatable ball, shot after shot.”

Keys, the Australian Open champion, has now won 11 consecutive Grand Slam matches. She’s only the fifth woman in the Open Era to win her first 11-plus major matches of the year after turning 29, following Margaret Court (1973), Virginia Wade (1977), Chris Evert (1985 and 1986) and Serena Williams (2015).