A good day for Argentina at the French Open with Diego Schwartzman and Nadia Podoroska both reaching the singles semi-finals.
Photo: LaPresse
Schwartzman outlasted Dominic Thiem in a brutal claycourt war of attrition to win 7-6(1) 5-7 6-7(6) 7-6(5) 6-2 and reach his first French Open semi-final.
Schwartzman had never beaten a top-five player at a Grand Slam and had lost his three previous quarter-finals but he produced a relentless display to set that record straight.
Both players appeared to be running on empty at times as they slugged out endless rallies from the baseline for more than five hours on a windy Court Phillipe Chatrier.
Third seed Thiem, the U.S Open champion, saved a set point in the third before moving two sets to one ahead and when Schwartzman wasted three set points at 5-4 in the fourth it looked as though he was going to fall short.
But the 12th seed showed incredible resilience to come back from 3-1 down in the tiebreak to drag it into a final set.
Schwartzman looked the fresher player in the decider and Thiem, bidding to reach a fifth successive French Open semi-final, began to unravel.
Meanwhile Podoroska became the first qualifier to reach the French Open semi-finals in the women's singles draw when she downed Ukrainian third seed Elina Svitolina 6-2 6-4.
Elina Svitolina Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The world number 131, on her second appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam, emulates Belgium's Filip Dewulf, the only qualifier in either of the singles draws since tennis turned professional in 1968 to make it to the last four at Roland Garros, in 1997.
Svitolina, one of the pre-tournament favourites after winning the Strasbourg International last month, was on the back foot throughout, failing at the last-eight stage for the third time at the claycourt Grand Slam.
Since 1968, only Alexandra Stevenson at Wimbledon in 1999 and Christine Dorey at the 1978 Australian Open had made it to the semi-finals at a major prior to Podoroska. Both of them failed to go one step further.
Podoroska will next playe Polish teenager Iga Swiatek who recovered from a nervy start to outclass Italian qualifier Martina Trevisan 6-3 6-1.
The 19-year-old, who thrashed top seed Simona Halep in the previous round, is a former Wimbledon junior champion.
-Reuters
