[vc_empty_space height="5px"]
By Giri Nathan
[vc_empty_space height="15px"]After two Roland-Garros semifinals this harrowing and high-level, it’s hard to believe there’s another match in store. A final? What’s left to say? The big plot twist already came on Thursday. For a while it felt as though this whole tournament was just a formality, building heat for an inexorable clash between No. 1 Iga Swiatek and No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, neither of whom had dropped a set through five rounds. Nobody told unseeded Karolina Muchova that that was the grand plan. Savvy move by nobody. Because Muchova instead found herself battling with Sabalenka for three hours and 13 minutes in possibly the most end-to-end entertaining match of 2023 and taking a 7–6(5), 6–7(5), 7–5 victory with an abrupt conquest of the last five games.