Lois Boisson produced one of the most thrilling performances of this year’s Roland Garros so far, as she knocked out world No 3 Jessica Pegula in front of a raucous crowd in Paris.
Boisson just about held her nerve and rode her luck in a tense final set to beat American rival Pegula 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in front of a packed Court Philippe-Chatrier crowd.
“I’m not quite sure what to say, but playing on this court with this atmosphere was amazing, so thank you very much,” said Boisson.
“I knew before the match there was a possibility [of an upset], but I knew it was going to be very, very tough. I gave it my all and in the end I won, which is incredible.”
Aged just 22, Boisson has become the third-youngest French player to reach the women’s singles quarter-finals at Roland Garros in the Open Era, older only than Mary Pierce in 1994 and Brigitte Simon in 1978.
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She is also the lowest ranked (No 361) to reach a women’s singles Grand Slam quarter-final since Kaia Kanepi at the US Open 2017 ( No 418) and the lowest ranked at Roland Garros in the last 40 years.
This stunning win will also change the narrative around Boisson because if you type her name into a Google search engine, the top resilts that come up focus on a controversy in a match against Britain’s Harriet Dart last month.
There have been some pretty brutal sporting jibes down the years, but may have taken verbal swipes to the next level in her match against French wild card Lois Boisson in the last 32 of the Open de Rouen.
Boisson was in dominant form as her took the first set 6-0 against Dart, with her frustrations boiling over during a change of ends.
As Boisson walked past Dart to resume the match, the experienced British player made a bizarre request to the umpire as she said: “Can you ask her to put on deodorant? She smells really bad.”
It is unclear whether Boisson heard the swipe, but the umpire was not keen to grant Dart’s request to encourage Boisson to improve her personal hygiene and it inspired a swift apology from Dart.
“I want to apologise for what I said on court today, it was a heat-of-the-moment comment that I truly regret,” wrote Dart on her Instagram page.
“That’s not how I want to carry myself, and I take full responsibility. I have a lot of respect for Lois and how she competed today. I’ll learn from this and move forward.”
Boisson made a joke about the incident on her own Instagram account, as she posted an edited photo of her holding deodorant with a logo of a well-known company, as she joked she “need a collab” with the body wash manufacturers.
Now Boisson may well be attracting interest from plenty of sponsors for all the right reasons, with her run to the Roland Garros quarter-finals seeing her rise a staggering 241 places in the WTA Rankings, with another win set to see her break into the top 100.
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