Coco Gauff earned her fifth consecutive trip to the French Open quarterfinals with a straight-sets victory Monday, while world No. 361 Lois Boisson, the last remaining French player in the singles draw, upset third-seeded Jessica Pegula 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
“The whole match I played well. She stepped up her game in the second set. Overall, I thought I played great,” Gauff said after brushing aside Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-0, 7-5. “I move well on clay, really comfortable with sliding and moving on the surface. The most physical surface for sure and I do well in that department.”
Pegula took the first set in about a half-hour, but the 22-year-old Boisson won the second and broke early in the decider before sealing victory to the delight of the crowd on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Even though Boisson became the first French player to reach the quarterfinals at Roland Garros since 2017, that didn’t motivate the late-arriving fans, a common occurrence at the tournament where nothing can interrupt the sanctity of lunch. Fewer than 5,000 people filled the 15,000-capacity stands for the first point.
Boisson played the final set, however, to the sound of “Lois, Lois!” sung by a raucous audience, and her victory was greeted by a spontaneous rendition of La Marseillaise, the French national anthem.
Boisson, who suffered a serious knee injury before the French Open last year, was gracious after winning a 2-hour, 40-minute battle.
“I don’t know what to say, but thank you. Playing on this court in such a great atmosphere, it was incredible,” Boisson, who will add at least $500,000 to her career total of $21,000 in prize money, said on court. “I knew I could do it but I knew she was super strong, but after a while, I realized it was a proper contest.”
Boisson’s massive forehand proved tough for Pegula to handle, and the momentum shifted as the Frenchwoman forced a deciding set. She broke decisively for 5-4, and although nerves crept in, a stone-faced Boisson served out to become the first French wild card to make it to the last eight at Roland Garros since Mary Pierce in 2002.
Boisson is the lowest-ranked woman to make a Grand Slam quarterfinal since Kaia Kanepi reached the 2017 US Open last eight ranked 418th. Boisson is also the first woman to make the quarterfinals of her first Grand Slam main draw since Carla Suarez Navarro made the last eight in Paris in 2008 as a qualifier.
Australian Open winner Madison Keys, seeded seventh, eased past fellow American Hailey Baptiste 6-3, 7-5 to set up an all-American quarterfinal against Gauff.
Mirra Andreeva, a semifinalist at Roland Garros last year, will face Boisson after the Russian teenager overcame Australian 17th seed Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 7-5. Andreeva is the youngest player to reach back-to-back French Open quarterfinals in nearly three decades.
The 21-year-old Gauff started fast in her match, earning three consecutive breaks for a 5-0 lead in 15 minutes as she ran her opponent ragged across the baseline. Gauff, who has now won four of their five meetings, gave away five break points in the next game but still secured her first bagel of the tournament.
She was less dominant in the second set, with Alexandrova putting up stronger resistance. The Russian broke to go 5-4 up, with Gauff briefly rattled and double-faulting twice before holding to level.
Gauff kept her composure, broke Alexandrova and wrapped up the match on her serve.
Gauff, who won the 2023 US Open and was the runner-up in Paris in 2022, said she still is catching flak because she forgot to bring her rackets to a match earlier in the tournament. She has been engaging in a bit of back-and-forth with another American and Roland Garros quarterfinalist, Frances Tiafoe, over the equipment blunder.
Tiafoe teasingly called the Gauff “Mrs. Mature.” Gauff’s retort: “I feel like maybe just playing tennis, it forces you to grow up faster for some people. Maybe not him.”
It was Tiafoe who first made that very mistake in March, showing up for a match at Indian Wells without his rackets. He got plenty of ribbing on social media and from other players, including Gauff.
So when Gauff went to Court Philippe-Chatrier for her first-round match last week and opened her bag only to realize there weren’t any rackets inside, the 27-year-old Tiafoe was only too happy to call her out.
“She was full out shaking her whole bag like it was an empty cookie jar on Chatrier. I was like, ‘What are you doing?'” said Tiafoe, who will play in the quarterfinals Tuesday. “… I’m going to keep ripping her for a long time. I’ve never seen someone [ranked No. 2] in the world have zero things in her bag. That was incredible.
“That kind of thing is so big because it just makes everyone [realize] we’re all human. People make mistakes, whether it’s the team or her or whatever. That was a funny moment, especially [because] she tries to be Mrs. Mature. That was great. I’m happy it happened to her. Hopefully it happens again.”
Gauff acknowledged she couldn’t really offer much of a comeback.
“I literally told him: ‘From you, I expected it. From you, it’s OK, but the fact that it happened to me …'” she said. “Because I feel like I’m a professional person, and usually I am someone — if anybody knows me — I’m someone that can find the comeback real quick. Even if I’m wrong, I’m one of those people that will still defend myself.
“But that one, I just had to take it. I learned that I had nothing to say, especially because I gave him a lot of [hassle] for it, and then not even six months later, I did the same thing on an even bigger stage. But I have learned my lesson, and hopefully it won’t happen again.”
As for his barb about “Mrs. Mature” — stemming from how Gauff carries herself on the court and off after breaking through at Wimbledon at age 15 and collecting her first Grand Slam title at 19 — she said she hears that type of comment a lot.
“I definitely for sure feel like I’m sometimes, when I was a junior, especially more mature than maybe some of my peers. I don’t know why. I feel like I have always been that,” Gauff said. “When I was in school, I would always be the first one to class. I remember getting yellow for the behavior chart once, and that was like the worst day of my life. I’m definitely someone that prides myself in being a good example. I think it’s because I have two younger brothers, and I feel like I have to be that example.”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
