Vers la fin, les nouveaux

This year's crazy French Open tennis tournament is down to four players each in the men's and women's singles brackets, and all but one of the top seeds are long gone. On the women's side, the remaining players were seeded 8, 15, and 24, with one unseeded. On the men's side, they were 2, 10, and 26, also with one unseeded. Having so many lower-rated players still standing for the last rounds is unusual, particularly for the men.

Today each of the women's semifinals is Russia versus the free world. One match pits Diana Shnaider of Putinland against Maja Chwalinska of Poland. The other match features Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine against Shnaider's compatriot and doubles partner, Mirra Andreeva (pictured). The winners will play for the big prize money (2.8 million euros, or about US$3.25 million) on Saturday.

Tomorrow are the men's semifinal matches. In one contest, Italians face off against each other: Matteo Arnaldi and Flavio Cobolli. In the second match, second-seed Alexander Zverev of Germany faces Jakub Mensik of Czechia. The men's final, with the same prize money as the women's, will be on Sunday.

People who casually follow professional tennis can be forgiven for not knowing much about half of these players. But they've performed well in Paris to get this far, obviously. If I were betting, I'd put my dough on Zverev and Shnaider. But my rooting interests are Chwalinska and Mensik. Let's hope the video recorder does its thing properly, and I get to see most of the action without spoilers.