Happy Thursday! Roland Garros has thrown out the script entirely, delivering the most chaotic and unpredictable French Open in nearly half a century, with brand new champions guaranteed on both sides of the draw.

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Nobody saw this men's draw coming, and that is putting it mildly. Jannik Sinner, the most dominant player in tennis entering Roland Garros, wilted in the brutal Paris heat against Juan Manuel Cerundolo, surrendering a two-set lead before collapsing 7-5, 6-1, 6-1 in the final three sets. Novak Djokovic, chasing a 25th Grand Slam, was sent home in the third round by 19-year-old Joao Fonseca. Carlos Alcaraz was already gone before the first ball was struck. For the first time since 1977, no former Grand Slam champion will appear in the men's semifinals.

The four men who survived the carnage each earned their spot in different ways. Alexander Zverev has been the most clinical presence in the draw, dispatching opponents with the kind of controlled aggression that made him a finalist at the Australian Open last year. Jakub Mensik, the young Czech who toppled Fonseca, continues to announce himself as one of the sport's most dangerous rising stars. On the other side, Flavio Cobolli reached his first Grand Slam semifinal by outlasting Felix Auger-Aliassime in a match where the roof closure dramatically shifted the momentum, while Matteo Arnaldi advanced only after good friend Matteo Berrettini was forced to retire with a hip injury while trailing.

Zverev is the clear favorite to win his first Grand Slam title, and it is genuinely hard to build a case against him right now. He has the biggest serve remaining in the draw, the most Grand Slam final experience among the four semifinalists, and he faces Mensik, a 20-year-old who has never been past the fourth round of a major. An all-Italian final between Cobolli and Arnaldi would be one of the great feel-good stories in recent memory, but our pick is Zverev, who has waited his entire career for a draw this wide open.

The women's draw at Roland Garros has been nothing short of extraordinary, and not in the way anyone expected. Defending champion Coco Gauff was eliminated in the fourth round. Four-time champion Iga Swiatek, who many considered the real favorite on clay, fell to Marta Kostyuk in the quarterfinals. Elena Rybakina was upset in the second round after making 71 unforced errors. And then came the biggest shock of all, as world number one Aryna Sabalenka, who led Diana Shnaider a set and 4-1 in the second, collapsed so dramatically that she said afterward she wanted to quit tennis. The third set finished 6-0 in Shnaider's favor.

The four women who made the semifinals have nothing in common except resilience. Shnaider, ranked 25th, had never been past the third round of a major before this fortnight. Polish qualifier Maja Chwalinska, who nearly walked away from the sport entirely in 2022 while managing depression, has been one of the tournament's most unlikely and compelling stories, beating Anna Kalinskaya to reach the last four. On the other side, Mirra Andreeva, just 19 years old, has been quietly dominant all tournament, while Kostyuk arrives carrying both a 17-match clay winning streak and the emotional weight of dedicating her run to Ukraine after learning a missile struck near her parents' home in Kyiv on the tournament's opening day.

Andreeva enters as the highest remaining seed and the pick of most oddsmakers, but our pick is Kostyuk, and it would be one of the most powerful stories women's tennis has ever produced. She has beaten Swiatek and Svitolina on this very court in the past two weeks, she is playing the most consistent tennis of her career, and she is doing it with a sense of purpose that goes far beyond tennis. If there is a player in this draw who will not feel the moment, it is Kostyuk.

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