Roland Garros served up another seismic shock on Wednesday as world No. 1 and top seed Aryna Sabalenka squandered a set and a double-break lead to fall to No. 25 Diana Shnaider, 3-6, 7-5, 6-0, in the women’s quarterfinals. It extended a 2026 French Open that has been defined by chaos and upsets.
Sabalenka looked in full control at 4-1 and serving in the second set on Court Philippe-Chatrier, chasing a first Roland Garros crown after finishing runner-up last year. But as the wind picked up mid-set, the four-time major champion unraveled, holding serve only once more and getting bageled in the deciding set in a stunning collapse. She had not dropped a set all tournament heading in.
The earlier women’s quarterfinal produced its own fairytale. Polish qualifier Maja Chwalinska beat No. 22 seed Anna Kalinskaya 7-6 (3), 6-3 to reach the semifinals, becoming only the second Polish woman to reach the last four at Roland Garros, alongside four-time champion Iga Swiatek.
The 24-year-old came through three qualifying rounds and matched the best-ever run by a women’s qualifier in the Open era, equaling Argentine Nadia Podoroska’s 2020 semifinal feat. “I honestly don’t know what’s going on,” Chwalinska told the crowd. Reaching the semifinals also doubled her career prize money, worth about 750,000 euros.
On the men’s side, the Italian wave kept building. Tenth-seeded Flavio Cobolli beat No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal and guarantee an Italian in the final on his half of the draw. It marked the first time three Italians have reached the quarterfinals of the same Grand Slam, a remarkable surge that comes despite top-ranked Jannik Sinner’s stunning second-round exit. The evening’s all-Italian quarterfinal between Matteo Berrettini and Matteo Arnaldi was still being decided at deadline to determine Cobolli’s semifinal opponent.
For those of us in Latin American, Wednesday closed the book on a region that had carried real hope into the draw. The last of those threads ran straight through the day’s winners: Auger-Aliassime had reached the quarterfinals by beating Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo in the round of 16, while Berrettini advanced past Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerundolo.
Brazil’s 19-year-old sensation Joao Fonseca, the breakout story of the fortnight, was eliminated a day earlier by Jakub Mensik in straight sets, ending the region’s deepest run. Chwalinska’s qualifier milestone, measured against Podoroska’s 2020 benchmark, was as close as Latin America got to the headlines on Wednesday.
The semifinals are now set on the women’s side: Shnaider faces Chwalinska, while Marta Kostyuk meets Mirra Andreeva in the other half. In the men’s draw, Cobolli awaits the Berrettini-Arnaldi winner, and second seed Alexander Zverev will play No. 26 Jakub Mensik. The women’s final is set for June 6 and the men’s final for June 7 on Court Philippe-Chatrier
