Martina Trevisan, the world number 59 in women’s tennis, reached her first Grand Slam semi-final on Tuesday with a win over 17th seeded Leylah Fernandez in the French Open, scripting history for her nation.

The 28-year-old Trevisan, hailing from Italy, beat Canada’s Fernandez 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 6-3 to progress to the semis, where she will either face Coco Gauff or Sloane Stephens for a place in the final.

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“It’s been an incredible week. This is the first [grand slam semi-final] of my career so it’s a very important emotion for me. I came here with a lot of energy, I wasn’t tired, I wanted to push all that emotion on to the court,” an exuberant Trevisan told the media after the match.

Trevisan, despite her lowly ranking, went into the quarter-final match against Fernandez on a nine win streak, and the win saw her become the first Italian player to win 10+ matches in a row since Flavia Pennetta in 2009.

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Further, the win over Fernandez saw Trevisan become only the eight Italian female tennis player in the history of the sport to reach a Grand Slam semi-final, a feat previously achieved by Maud Levi, Annalisa Bossi, Silvana Lazzarino, Francesca Schiavone, Sara Errani, Roberta Vinci, and Flavia Pennetta.

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Born in 1993, Trevisan played made her Grand Slam debut at the 2020 Australian Open, and went on to reach the quarter-finals of the French Open in the same year, where she was beaten in straight sets by eventual champion Iga Swiatek.

A couple of years later, in May 2022, Trevisan won her first WTA title at the 2022 Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem in Rabat, Morocco, where she beat first-time WTA finalist Claire Liu 6-2, 6-1, to break into the top 60 of women’s tennis rankings.