French Open semi-finalist Lois Boisson was on Thursday continuing her preparations for Wimbledon's qualifying rounds after organisers of the grass court slam turned down her request for a wildcard – a direct entry into the 128-player main draw.
Two-time champion Petra Kvitova was among eight women offered an invitation on Wednesday to the championships, which start on 30 June at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in south-west London.
The 35-year-old Czech, ranked 572nd, returned to the tour in February following the birth of her son in June 2024. The other seven wildcards were handed to British players Jodie Burrage, Harriet Dart, Francesca Jones, Hannah Klugman, Mika Stojsavljevic, Heather Watson and Mingge Xu.
French Tennis Federation (FFT) chiefs gave 22-year-old Boisson a wildcard for the 2025 French Open and in six matches between 27 May and 5 June at the Roland Garros Stadium in Paris, she sliced up the bottom half of the women's singles draw.
Three months after returning from the knee injury that deprived her of the chance to compete at the 2024 French Open, she beat the 24th seed Elise Mertens in the opening round.
Boisson knocked out Anhelina Kalinina from Ukraine in the second round, while fellow Frenchwoman Elsa Jacquemot was dismissed in the third round.
Feat for partisans
In the last-16, Boisson outwitted the third seed Jessica Pegula to become the first home-town heroine to reach the quarter-finals since Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic in 2017.
In the last eight, Boisson profited from the support of raucous partisans in the centre court stands as well as the meltdown of sixth seed Mirra Andreeva to reach the semi-finals.
Coco Gauff, though, was a top 10 player too far. The 21-year-old American deconstructed her 6-1, 6-2 in a display of poise, precision and purpose that would propel her to the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen.
Boisson, who entered the second Grand Slam tournament of the season at 361 in the world rankings, left the competition with 660,000 euros in prize money and 780 points to catapult her nearly 300 places up the WTA ladder.
That rise came too late for access to the Wimbledon main draw which was lined up on 19 May when Boisson was ranked 358th – a slot which gave her a chance to play in the Wimbledon qualifying competition.
She is expected to be among the seeded players for that tournament which begins on 23 June at the Community Sport Centre in Roehampton, south-west London.
Grass court feat
On Monday, Boisson posted a video on social media of her first practice sessions on grass, a surface on which she has never competed professionally.
"It's a very special surface," said Ivan Ljubicic, the head of elite performance at the FFT.
"If you look at Lois's technique and her way of using topspin especially on her forehand shots, she can't do that on grass. Of course, she can always try, but it will be a lot more complicated, so she's got to adapt her game."
Should she advance through the qualifiers, Boisson will go into Wimbledon as France's best female player at number 67 in the world. "It's not a fantastic ranking, to be honest," said Ljubicic.
"I thought last year that Lois was capable of doing great things and unfortunately, she got injured.
"This year I think she's having the career that she should have had last year. So I'm not incredibly surprised by what she did at the French Open.
At ease on clay
"I know Lois's level and when she played in lower tier tournaments she showed that she had the level to beat very strong players. I hope that the other French players are going to see that everything is possible."
As she moved through the tournament in Paris, Boisson explained to journalists that she had spent most of her youth practising on clay courts and felt at ease on the surface.
To progress on the grass courts at Wimbledon, she will have to cope with balls that bounce lower and be ready to dominate the net and conclude points with volleys.
"I think that she's capable," said Ljubicic. "And with the service that she has, I think she can win a lot of points. Also, she's got to improve her slice, but I trust her coach totally that they're going to find a way to be competitive."
In the absence of the injured Arthur Fils, Ugo Humbert will go into the season's third Grand Slam tournament as the main male French hope.
Last year Fils, Humbert and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard all reached the last-16 at Wimbledon.
On Tuesday, in Halle, central Germany, Humbert went down to Denis Shapovalov in the first round and at the Queen's Club in west London, Mpetshi Perricard lost to Brandon Nakashima from the United Sates.
But there was a surprise as Arthur Rinderknech saw off the sixth seed Ben Shelton to reach the last-16.
The 29-year-old will take on Reilly Opelka from the United States on Thursday afternoon.
