10 June, 2017
The semi-finals will see two birthday girls facing off at Roland-Garros after Latvian 19-year-old Ostapenko powered her way past former World No 1 Caroline Wozniacki 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 to reach her maiden Slam semi-final.
There was, though, tears of disappointment over on Philippe-Chatrier, where Mladenovic's hopes of becoming a first French champion since Mary Pierce in 2000 evaporated as she was beaten 6-4 6-4 by Timea Bacsinszky, the No 30 seed from Switerzland.
However, her lead was short lived as Bacsinszky unleashed powerful backhand shots to win the next three and lead 4-3 with a break up. Ostapenko will be 20 while her Swiss opponent will turn 28.
Both had to endure winds whipping up dust in their eyers during their respective ties.
And sure enough Mladenovic - who trailed Jennifer Brady 3-0 in the third set in the first round and a second American, Shelby Rogers, 5-2 in the third set in the third round - temporarily lifted her game to lead 3-1 in the second.
But she handed the advantage straight back in the fifth game and the Swiss player went on to claim the opening set on an ace after 63 minutes on court.
Following a delay of the best part of three hours, the teenager closed out the set on her serve to level.
Ostapenko became the first Latvian woman to reach the last four of a Grand Slam after toppling former world number one Wozniacki. It will be really great to play here when it will be my birthday.
Ostapenko clinched victory with her 50th victor, a forehand into the corner, and has hit more winners - 245 - than anyone else in the tournament despite the men playing best-of-five-set matches. "I'm just happy with the way I celebrated my birthday", Ostapenko said.
Ostapenko will meet 27-year-old Bacsinszky in their semi-final on Thursday - when both players celebrate their birthdays.
Unseeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia beat No. 11 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 4-6, 6-2, 6-2; No. 30 Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland beat No. 13 Kristina Mladenovic of France 6-4, 6-4. "Maybe her game suits these kinds of conditions better, so at times when I wanted to be more aggressive, I did too many errors".
"She's a really nice person". Now, she has gone step further than compatriot Anastasija Sevastova at last year's US Open.
Djokovic has been struggling for consistency and the 23-year-old Thiem is expected to provide a tough challenge even if the Austrian has won only one set in their five previous encounters.
Ostapenko, earlier beat Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko, quickly departed from the starting of failure and began to drive on court eks-the first racket of the world.
10 - years since a teenager last made the semi-finals at Roland Garros prior to Ostapenko's run this fortnight. While the other side of the bracket features strong players like No. 2 Karolinz Pliskova and No. 3 Simona Halep, when has playing a higher seed stopped Bacsinszky or Ostpenko on clay this June?
Those two matches join today's scheduled quarterfinals - top-seeded Andy Murray vs. eighth-seeded Kei Nishikori and third-seeded Stan Wawrinka against seventh-seeded Marin Cilic.
