| Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky spoiled the French party by beating crowd favourite Kristina Mladenovic |
French favourite Kristina Mladenovic skidded out of a storm-struck French Open on Tuesday, losing 6-4 6-4 to Timea Bacsinszky in a rain-interrupted quarter-final.
Thirteenth seed Mladenovic had been hoping to become the first French champion since Mary Pierce in 2000, but never really clicked on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
An opening set where both players struggled to hold serve was sealed when Bacsinszky hit her third ace, and the Swiss held her nerve in the second set to close it out.
Bacsinszky, a semi-finalist here in 2015, will next meet Jelena Ostapenko as the Latvian’s dream run continued when she stunned former world number one Caroline Wozniacki.
The world number 47 recovered from losing the first five games of a rain-ravaged match to outclass 11th seed Wozniacki 4-6 6-2 6-2 on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
The 19-year-old, playing in the main draw in Paris for only the second time, is the first teenager to get to the semi-finals at Roland Garros since Ana Ivanovic in 2007.
She will face Bacsinszky in the last four on Thursday when she will celebrate her 20th birthday.