Mirra Andreeva reaches French Open semi-finals at age 17, will face Paolini, 28

Paris: With the insouciance of a 17-year-old having the time of her life in Paris, Mirra Andreeva says she and her coach work out a game plan before a tennis match — and then she forgets all about that, preferring to just wing it.

Seems to be working out fine so far: The unseeded Russian is the youngest Grand Slam semifinalist in more than a quarter-century.

Playing in only her sixth major tournament, Andreeva got past an ill No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4 at the French Open on Wednesday.

Next, on Thursday, Andreeva goes up against another surprising player: No. 12 Jasmine Paolini, a 28-year-old Italian who reached her first major semifinal by defeating No. 4 Elena Rybakina 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

“I always play the way I want to play. We have a plan with my coach for the match, but after, I forget everything, and when I play a match, I don’t have any thoughts in my head,” said the 38th-ranked Andreeva, who is based in Cannes and coached by 1994 Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez.

“So maybe I would say that my strength could be that I just play how I want to play and I do whatever I want to do.”

Words many the parent of a teenager probably has heard at home. The other matchup Thursday will be No. 1 Iga Swiatek against No. 3 Coco Gauff. Swiatek is seeking her fifth Grand Slam

title and fourth in Paris; Gauff won the U.S. Open last September and was the runner-up to Swiatek at Roland Garros in 2022. They both won singles quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Gauff, with Katerina Siniakova, and Paolini, with Sara Errani, also are into the semifinals in doubles; Andreeva withdrew from that event before her quarterfinal scheduled for Wednesday.

She is the youngest Grand Slam semifinalist since Martina Hingis at age 16 in 1997. You need to go even farther back to find a younger player who eliminated a woman ranked No. 1 or 2 at Roland Garros: 1990, when Monica Seles — like Hingis, now a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame — was 16 when she beat Steffi Graf in the final.