As the French Open semifinals get underway Thursday, the major storylines at Roland Garros are the depth and youth on the men’s side of the draw and the continued dominance of Iga among the women.

With Novak Djokovic withdrawing prior to his quarterfinal match against Casper Ruud, the page appears to be finally turning on the extended era utterly dominated by Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic.

This will be the first French Open Final since 2004 without one of the Big 3. This does not mean the world’s top-ranked player will not be a threat at Wimbledon in a few weeks or in another major,

but Father Time is undefeated and after sending Federer and Nadal to the showers he appears to have set his sights on the 24-time Grand Slam Champion.

Add to it the maturation of so many athletes in the men’s game and there are new faces and even favorites in position to claim glory this weekend and moving forward.

While Rafael Nadal was knocked out in the Opening Round, his spirit and level of dominance has been assumed by Iga Swiatek.

The fact that the #1-ranked player on the women’s side has even lost one set in the tournament is considered shocking to many. Take a bow, Naomi Osaka. Swiatek was a 16-dollar favorite in the quarterfinals…against the 6th-ranked player in the world. A combination of an off-night for Iga and best-ever performance by her opponent is the only path, and it is a narrow one, for someone other than the 23-year-old from Poland to win in Paris.

Let’s do a deeper dive into the men’s and women’s semis. It features odds for each player to win the match, a couple additional betting markets, and a dive into the match from NBC Sports’ Jay Croucher. In addition, we have offered a snapshot of each individual player along with their respective odds to win the French Open, their current world ranking, a handful of career achievements, and a link to highlights.

Follow us to see more useful information, as well as to give us more motivation to update more useful information for you.

Source: Tampa Bay Times