Roland Garros: Five things we learned on Day 11 – shocks and snares

We would have gotten away with the top four women meeting in the semis if it weren't for an unheralded Italian and a pesky meddling kid.

Shock

Imagine that. Your first time on the centre court at the French Open happens to be your first quarter-final at a Grand Slam tournament. Twelfth seed Jasmine Paolini appeared to be coping with the moment rather well until she probably saw the success heading her way. From 6-2, 4-3 and with two points for 5-3, she wobbled. Her opponent, Elena Rybakina, gained parity at 4-4 and won the next two games to claim the second set and come back from the almost dead. Paolini, 28, got the chance to serve for the match in the decider at 5-4 and she took it with some aplomb. "I told myself to stay there in every point," she explained to a suitably impressed Marion Bartoli in the on-court interview immediately after the match. "I told myself to forget what happened in the second set and that I could come back and fight again." Her next battle will be against the unseeded Russian Mirra Andreeva who beat the second seed Aryna Sabalenka in three sets.

Record

The quarter-final between 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva and Aryna Sabalenka was a see-saw battle. Andreeva served for the first set at 5-4 up lost that game and the subsequent tiebreak at six games apiece. She managed to win the second set, went a break down in the decider and came back to 3-3 and eventually pulled off a surprise win. Or at least she managed to profit from Sabalenka's distress. The 25-year-old Belarusian has been suffering from a stomach bug.

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