Jakub Mensik announced himself in Paris with a performance that changed his standing among the sport’s rising 20-and-under contingent. The 20-year-old Czech, long discussed as an afterthought alongside peers such as Joao Fonseca, Learner Tien and Martin Landaluce, produced a masterful display to beat Fonseca in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (3). The scoreline belies a match rich in brilliant shotmaking and relentless aggression.

Mensik will face Alexander Zverev in Friday’s semifinals in what shapes up as a matchup of two power movers who also move well. John McEnroe gave Mensik a slight edge in one area after watching him chase down Fonseca’s drop shots. “Zverev is awesome moving side to side. But he’s not quite as good moving forward as Mensik,” McEnroe said. “If Mensik plays like that [again] in the semifinals, he’s going to give Zverev a lot of trouble. The way he got up to those drop shops, and so skillful with that feel [when he gets there] … I’ll tell you, he’s gonna be a handful for the next 10 years.”

Fonseca offered a clear-eyed assessment after the loss. “His [Mensik’s] return, both first and second serve, are pretty into the court and he puts a lot of pressure on the opponent,” Fonseca said. “He missed a very small amount [number] of returns and that put me in a tough position. Today was not about me playing bad, It was [all] to his merit … He knows how to play in important moments. He’s not afraid. He has courage.”

Mensik called the match “insane,” and his composure was tested late when he failed to convert six match points before closing out the third-set tiebreak. His game is a collection of outsized weapons: an explosive serve, a rifle two-handed backhand and a heavy smash, but his movement proved decisive on the clay.

Mensik’s recent run follows a breakthrough last April in Miami when he beat Novak Djokovic in the final and rose to No. 24. He began the year with a title in Auckland, then endured an abdominal muscle pull that forced him out of the Australian Open fourth-round meeting with Djokovic. A disrupted clay buildup left him with a 3-3 record entering the clay season and a ranking around the mid-20s, but by Roland Garros he was healthy, seeded and advancing past top opponents including No. 8 seed Alex de Minaur and No. 11 Andrey Rublev on his way to the last four.

Maja Chwalinska advanced to the Roland Garros final on Thursday, completing a run from qualifying to within one match of a major title. The world No. 114 defeated fellow left-hander Diana Shnaider 7-6 (4), 6-4 to become just the second women’s qualifier in Open Era history to reach a Grand Slam final and the first to do so at Roland Garros.

Chwalinska, 24, produced a composed performance in a high-quality contest. After losing a break advantage in the opening set, she saved two break points to hold for 6-5, then took control of the tiebreak by winning the final five points. The Pole struck 32 winners while committing 17 unforced errors. Shnaider finished with a 33-to-36 winners-to-unforced-errors ratio.

The momentum carried into the second set, where the pair traded breaks before Chwalinska secured a third return game to move ahead. After two hours and seven minutes, the victory belonged to the qualifier.

“I mean, like a dream honestly. I don’t know what’s going on,” she said on court afterwards in Paris. “I don’t know what to say. I’m just very happy.”

This is only Chwalinska’s third main-draw appearance at a major; her previous two were at 2022 Wimbledon and the 2025 Australian Open. With the title match still to come, she has the chance to complete one of the most unlikely Grand Slam runs of the season. Should she defeat Mirra Andreeva in Saturday’s championship match, she would join Emma Raducanu as a qualifier to capture a major trophy.

Chwalinska’s run from the qualifying competition to the championship match is a rare achievement in modern tennis and adds a compelling chapter to this year’s event.

Mirra Andreeva will contest her first Grand Slam title after a commanding performance in the Roland Garros semifinals. The 19-year-old became the first player this clay season to beat Marta Kostyuk, recording a 6-1, 6-3 victory in Thursday’s opening women’s semifinal.

“The conditions were very tough today. I couldn’t understand which direction the wind was going,” Andreeva told Marion Bartoli on court. “I’m just happy I was able to stay focused. I told myself to accept everything that happens today on the court. It was a little bit unpredictable.”

The result marked Andreeva’s first win in three meetings with Kostyuk; she had lost their previous two encounters, including the Mutua Madrid Open final in May. Drawing on the experience of a 2024 semifinal at this event, the No. 8 seed sprinted to a 4-0 lead and largely maintained control as gusty conditions complicated timing and movement.

Andreeva’s game plan remained composed and precise. Kostyuk was unable to reproduce the form that had driven a 17-match clay winning streak into the major, and at times vented visible frustration. The only clear lapse from Andreeva arrived at 4-2 in the second set when she was broken at love after a double fault and an errant forehand. She recovered immediately, varying pace to force a re-break and then served out the match on her first opportunity.

Statistically, Kostyuk finished with a minus-19 differential between winners and unforced errors, a telling indicator of how the match tilted. Andreeva, contesting her 13th major main draw, is the youngest woman to reach a Grand Slam final in four years, the last being an 18-year-old Coco Gauff at this event.

The Russian leads the tour with 21 clay-court wins and 35 match wins overall this season. She now bids to become the WTA’s third youngest first-time major champion this century behind Maria Sharapova and Emma Raducanu.

© 2026 Franco Arland