Nadia Podoroska 1st female qualifier into French Open semifinals

After becoming first qualifier to reach women's semifinals at Roland Garros in Open era, Nia Podoroska threw her racket in air, tilted her he back and pumped both fists.

Podoroska h just kcked out Elena Svitolina, French Open's third seed who, on Tuesday, was stopped from reaching a third semifinal in her past four Grand Slam tournaments.

Argentine, who is ranked 131st and never h won a main draw Grand Slam match before last week, could hardly believe she won 6-2, 6-4 on Court Philippe Chatrier.

Podoroska is only third female qualifier to get to semifinals at any major tournament in Open era, which began in 1968, and first since Alexandra Stevenson at Wimbledon in 1999.

“Lots of things were t going my way," Svitolina said. “I was t 100% mentally on it today, and that was really disappointing.” Serving at 5-4 down, Svitolina saved two match points, second with an audacious slice at net to end a 27-shot rally.

But on third match point, Podoroska hit a crisp forehand winner and n chucked her racket toward blue sky. In semifinals, she could face ar qualifier in Martina Trevisan of Italy, who also h t won a main draw Grand Slam match before this tournament. Trevisan was scheduled to face unseeded 19-year-old Iga Swiatek later Tuesday.

On a day of firsts, Danielle Collins reached quarterfinals of French Open for first time by beating 30th-seeded Ons Jabeur 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. unseeded American also could scarcely take it in when she won on her first match point.

When Jabeur's forehand from back of court sank into net, Collins' loud scream of joy pierced air. She fell onto her back with her hands over her face and stretched out her arms on clay.

Collins played U.S. Open without a coach last month, but for Roland Garros — where she h never been beyond second round in two previous appearances — she reached out to Nicolas Almagro. Spaniard was once ranked . 9, and won all of his 13 career titles on outdoor clay.

“Nico and I started working with each or last week. I didn’t have a coach at U.S. Open, so I tried to find somebody right away," Collins said on court after her win. "Luckily I found somebody with an incredible record, who was a top 10 player.”

With Collins through, re will definitely be an American player in semifinals: She she next faces fourth-seeded Sofia Kenin, Australian Open champion. Jabeur me Collins work harder than she might have expected after racing to 3-0 le in second set.

powerful Tunisian n won next five games, unsettling Collins with her ability to change directions and using her drop shot to good effect.

“I kind of felt like I was in driver’s seat up until 6-4, 3-0. But she’s tricky and she served really well, she hit some drop shots on shots I wasn’t really expecting,” Collins said. “It broke my rhythm and I lost my way re a little bit. I just need to try to stay positive.”

After y both dropped ir first two service games of last set to make it 2-2, Collins rallied back from love-40 down on her serve to hold, n broke Jabeur for a 4-2 le.

t to be outdone, Jabeur — with her uncanny ability to wrongfoot Collins — broke back and a love hold me it 4-4. After holding comfortably this time, Collins composed herself and won on her first match point.

re were two men's quarterfinals scheduled on Chatrier: Third-seeded Dominic Thiem against . 12 Diego Schwartzman, and 12-time champion Rafael Nal against unseeded 19-year-old Jannik Sinner.

(Photo Credit: Twitter/rolandgarros)

(This story has t been edited by www.republicworld.com and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)