No.14 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia became the first Brazilian woman to reach the Roland Garros semifinals in the Open Era after upsetting No.7 seed Ons Jabeur 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-1 in 2 hours and 29 minutes.

"I was prepared for the game," Haddad Maia said after her win. "I knew that it would be very hard. It's not easy to be a set down against Jabeur, and she was playing well. So when the match was done, I just looked to my team and said, 'We made it.'

"I think it was one of the biggest and special wins for me, also because Jabeur is a player that I respect a lot. It's very tough to come and go for it because one thing is to win a set, one thing is to have 5-3 and serve, and one thing is to go and win the match. I was very proud, and I think my face showed that, I think, hard working, it works sometimes."

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The only other Brazilian woman to reach the last four of a Grand Slam in the Open Era was seven-time major champion Maria Bueno at the 1968 US Open. Bueno, who died in 2018 at the age of 78, made the French Open semifinals on five occasions prior to the Open Era, including a run to the 1964 final. The last Brazilian man to reach a major semifinal was Gustavo Kuerten at Roland Garros 2001, the last of his three title runs here.

Prior to this fortnight Haddad Maia, 27, had not gone beyond the second round in 11 previous Grand Slam main-draw appearances. Nor had she won a set from Jabeur in two previous encounters. She has rectified both statistics in memorable fashion. Four of Haddad Maia's five matches in Paris have gone to three sets, including victory from match point down in the third round against Ekaterina Alexandrova, and triumph in the 10th-longest match of the Open Era against Sara Sorribes Tormo in the fourth round. She has spent 12 hours and 55 minutes on court so far in singles.

Haddad Maia's defeat of Jabeur is her ninth career Top 10 win, and first on the Grand Slam stage. She advances to her second tour-level semifinal of 2023 following Abu Dhabi in February.

Haddad Maia will next face No.1 seed and defending champion Iga Swiatek, after Swiatek ousted Coco Gauff in a rematch of last year's Roland Garros final. Haddad Maia upset Swiatek in three sets in their only previous match, on the hard courts of Toronto last summer.

Turning point: As with so many of Haddad Maia's matches, she turned the tables incrementally rather than with one extra-significant point or game. But the most crucial improvement she made over the course of the match was the efficacy of her serve. Broken three times in the first set, Haddad Maia dropped serve only once more in the match.

The opener saw Jabeur pick up where she'd left off against Bernarda Pera in the previous round, a match in which she had broken her opponent eight times but dropped serve four times. The Tunisian was supreme on return, and dazzled the Court Philippe-Chatrier crowd with her full array of drop shots: the forehand scoop with no warning, the backhand dink from a seemingly defensive position.

However, 14 unforced errors to go with her 15 winners indicated a predilection for cheap errors that Haddad Maia would go on to exploit.

In contrast to the first set, the second was characterized by solid serving. At 5-5, Jabeur held the first two break points of the set, only for Haddad Maia to fend them off. Though Jabeur successfully saved a set point herself in the next game, Haddad Maia's left-handed forehand dominated the ensuing tiebreak, scoring her four separate winners -- including one on her fourth set point.

Haddad Maia continued to excel as the third set got under way, capturing two breaks of the Jabeur serve with booming returns. By contrast, Jabeur's radar had gone awry on both her forehand and her drop shot, which she was now frequently playing either into the net or with too much air. Across the second and third sets, the 28-year-old committed 28 unforced errors against 23 winners.

Haddad Maia also proved clutch in the home straight. Down 3-0, Jabeur clawed one of the breaks back. Haddad Maia responded by snuffing out the putative comeback across eight deuces in the next two games combined, grinding out a 5-1 lead. Serving to stay in the match, Jabeur coughed up four more cheap errors, sending a forehand over the baseline to put Haddad Maia through.

"As I said yesterday, I think a tennis match is like a marathon, it's not a 100 meters race," Haddad Maia said. "I think one of my qualities is that I wait and I'm very patient and I never give up, so I wait for the moment because I know that my level is high. So even if I'm not playing well or even if I'm missing a few shots one moment, the tennis will appear, and I'll have my opportunity to go for it."