Doubles Take: Major upset in the women's draw

Mother Nature didn’t stop today’s matches as the tournament gets ready to award its first champions. Presenting your daily edition of Doubles Take.

It’s official: There will be no calendar-year Grand Slam in women’s doubles in 2018.

Australian Open champs Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic lost their quarterfinal match at the French Open to one of the tournament’s biggest surprises: the unseeded duo of Eri Hozumi and Makoto Ninomiya. The young players from Japan shocked their more accomplished opponents in straight sets to reach their first Grand Slam semifinal as a team.

Hozumi and Ninomiya have been playing near-lights-out tennis throughout the event, dropping only one set on their way to the semis. Babos and Mladenovic were the third seeded team in a row to lose to the two.

Here’s a look at the two matches on tap for Thursday.

Mate Pavic/Gabriela Dabrowski (1) vs. Latisha Chan/Ivan Dodig (2): While the quest for tennis immortality might be done in women’s doubles, hope is still alive in the mixed category.

In the tournament’s first final, Pavic and Dabrowski will try to claim their second major of the year against Chan and Dodig, two players who’ve known Grand Slam success of their own. Expect a high-quality match, as Chan continues to try to turn around her year, and Pavic and Dabrowski eye history.

Nikola Mektic/Alexander Peya (8) vs. Pierre-Hugues Herbert/Nicolas Mahut (6): Mektic and Peya have been one of the most consistent teams during the clay-court season, while Herbert and Mahut are clicking at just the right time. This is the best result Herbert and Mahut have had at the tournament as a team, and they’ll be looking to extend their stay further as they try to become the third French pair to take the title in the Open Era.

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