The world number 51 will be the youngest player to contest a Grand Slam semi-final for 12 years on Friday against eighth seed Ashleigh Barty, after cruising past Halep 6-2, 6-4 in the biggest match of her career so far.

She is the youngest American to make the last four since Jennifer Capriati in 1990, but said she has not been suffering with nerves and even slept through most of Wednesday, when her quarter-final was delayed due to torrential rain.

“I just played the best tennis of my life. I don’t know how, and I don’t know how I did it, but it just happened,” said Anisimova.

“I was just, like, sleeping in the locker room (on Wednesday). I thought I wasn’t going to play, so I was just sleeping.

“Then I left, and I was in traffic a lot, because I wanted to get new shoes.

“Then I didn’t get them, and I was like, Wow, ‘that was a bad idea. Why am I exhausting myself right now?'”

Her unusual preparation had little effect on her performance against Romanian star Halep, as she booked a semi-final spot with surprising ease and is yet to drop a set in the tournament.

Anisimova has long been tipped for big things, reaching the juniors final in Paris three years ago at the age of 14, before winning the US Open girls’ title in 2017.

She gave notice of her potential when reaching the Australian Open fourth round earlier this year and also won her first WTA title in Bogota in April, but says she still misses the camaraderie of junior tennis.

“It was just, like, a fun environment and everyone was just hanging out. It’s kind of different in the WTA. I don’t have that many friends, I’d say,” she said.

“I just miss that a little bit, travelling. There were South American tournaments that I remember and I had good memories there. So just those little memories with old friends.”

Already being compared to Maria Sharapova when she won Wimbledon aged 17 in 2004, as well as other teenage Grand Slam champions like Monica Seles and Martina Hingis, Anisimova is not fazed by the big occasion.

“If I didn’t look nervous it’s because I wasn’t,” she said of facing defending champion Halep on Court Philippe Chatrier.

Anisimova is the youngest American woman to reach the last four of a major since Venus Williams at the 1997 US Open, and said last week that 23-time Slam title winner Serena Williams had helped pick her up after a recent difficult defeat in Miami.

“When I had a tough loss at the Miami Open, it was a really long match and I was super upset in the locker room, Serena actually came up to me and we shared a little bit of a chat.

“That was really nice of her, and I’ll remember it forever.”

– New generation ‘so exciting’ –

Anisimova is one of two teenagers in the last four — 19-year-old Czech Marketa Vondrousova faces Johanna Konta in the other semi — the first time that has happened in the French Open since Justin Henin and Kim Clijsters in 2001.

Williams said that she was more than happy to try and help the latest generation reach the top.

“I just needed to do that, and I know she’s super young. I really love all the new young players,” she said before being dumped out of Roland Garros in the third round by 20-year-old Sofia Kenin.

“It’s just so exciting. I feel like tennis has done so much for me, and to see a new generation come through is great.”

Tournament director Guy Forget said he remained hopeful of the French Open finishing on time on Sunday.

However, if the weather continues to deteriorate, the women’s final could be shifted from Saturday to Sunday, sharing top billing with the men’s title match.

“We always have to study the worse case scenario,” said Forget.

Wednesday was the second time since 2016 that all Roland Garros play was cancelled and third since 2000.

The decision left world number one Novak Djokovic and defending women’s champion Simona Halep to play their quarter-finals on Thursday and semi-finals on Friday if they get through.

With the women’s final traditionally set for Saturday, third seed Halep could end up playing three days in a row.

“The weather for tomorrow seems to be OK but Friday is already looking complicated,” added Forget.

Thursday’s schedule has been brought forward by two hours to accommodate Halep’s quarter-final against American teenager Amanda Anisimova and Djokovic’s last-eight tie with Alexander Zverev on Court Philippe Chatrier.

On Court Suzanne Lenglen, America’s Madison Keys was due to face Australia’s Ashleigh Barty before 2018 runner-up Dominic Thiem clashed with Russia’s Karen Khachanov.

Friday was originally set to stage both men’s semi-finals for which Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer had already booked their places on Tuesday.

Johanna Konta and Marketa Vondrousova had been due to play their semi-final Thursday but that has already been shifted to Friday.

“We don’t want to move the women’s final from Saturday to Sunday but some girls may be playing three days in a row,” said Forget.

“These girls have been waiting all of their lives to play such a match of this magnitude.

“If we have to move the finals to the following day it’s something that could happen. We have done it with the men (Rafael Nadal v Djokovic final of 2012).

“It’s not what we hope but if we have no other choice then that’s what we will do.”

Forget said it was possible that one of the women’s matches could be moved away from the Chatrier and Lenglen courts to the 5,000-seater Simonne Mathieu arena.

“You are always afraid that some players may think it’s a lack of respect or we have diminished it.

“But we want to see players in the best possible condition and if we have to make the tough call to move players to a smaller court, it’s a possibility,” said Forget.

Djokovic has fallen foul of the weather in Paris before.

In the 2012 final against Nadal, he dropped the first two sets before winning the third and was 2-1 up in the fourth when play was suspended until Monday.

But on the resumption, Nadal reimposed his authority and won in four sets for what was his seventh Roland Garros title.

In 2020, the French Open will be less affected by the vagaries of the weather as a retractable roof over Chatrier will come into operation.

World number one Koepka will be chasing a rare hat-trick of US Open titles at Pebble Beach next week, aiming to become only the second man in history to win the tournament three times in row.

The build-up to the June 13-16 tournament has been dogged by criticism of the United States Golf Association’s running of the event, with several players complaining of difficult setups or courses that were substandard.

A recent story in Golf Digest magazine included remarks from several anonymous players criticising the USGA’s running of the US Open, claiming that several professionals had even considered boycotting the event.

Koepka, however, who mastered treacherous conditions at Erin Hills in Wisconsin to win his first US Open in 2017, before defending his title at a similarly demanding Shinnecock Hills last year, has little time for the grievances of his fellow professionals.

“Whatever they’re doing, it’s working for me,” Koepka said when asked about the US Open setup. “So I don’t care what they do.”

“We’ve all got to play the same golf course. It doesn’t matter. Guys like to complain. I just don’t complain.

“We’ve all got to deal with the same issues. If you hit the fairways and hit every green you’re not going to have any problems.”

Koepka is preparing for his tilt at a US Open hat-trick by playing in this week’s Canadian Open at the Hamilton Golf and Country Club outside of Toronto.

The American star arrived in Canada having not picked up a club since his PGA win at Bethpage Black in New York.

“It was nice to recharge mentally and try and soak it in a little bit,” said Koepka, who hopes simply to leave Canada this week feeling as if his game is in good order.

“It doesn’t even matter about the result,” he said Wednesday. “I could care less. As long as I leave feeling confident, striking the ball where I want to, just hit some good putts.

“It doesn’t matter if they go in or not, I just want to feel confident. The result doesn’t matter, it’s how I feel I played that is important.”

The hosts had to withstand a huge moment of VAR controversy as after Ronaldo’s free-kick opened the scoring, Portugal thought they had the chance to double their lead from the penalty spot.

Instead German referee Felix Brych reversed his initial decision and awarded a spot-kick at the other end for an earlier incident, which Ricardo Rodriguez converted to seemingly send the game to extra-time.

However, Ronaldo predictably took centre stage as he struck twice in the final two minutes to set up a clash with England or the Netherlands, who meet in the second semi-final on Thursday, in Sunday’s final.

“I was his coach in 2003 and I could see where he’d go,” said Santos. “He’s a genius. There’s genius paintings and sculptures and he’s a football genius!”

Portugal made it to the last four without their all-time record goalscorer as Ronaldo took a hiatus from international football to concentrate on his first season at Juventus.

However, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner returned to the national team in March and was always likely to be the centre of attention, particularly on a day when it was reported a rape lawsuit against him had been dropped.

A lawyer for the American woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted by Ronaldo — accusations he has strongly denied — later dismissed that report, saying the case had not been dropped.

In front of an adoring home crowd, Ronaldo put the spotlight back on his performance on the pitch as he opened the scoring with a brilliant free-kick.

– Debut for Felix –

The Portugal captain is however no longer his country’s only star name, with Bernardo Silva starring for Manchester City where he could soon be joined by Joao Felix.

City are reportedly set to pay Felix’s 120-million-euro ($135 million) buyout clause from Benfica, but the 19-year-old missed a glaring chance to mark his international debut with a goal just before the break as he blasted over from Ronaldo’s pass.

Switzerland had posed a threat themselves in the first half with Xherdan Shaqiri, fresh from winning the Champions League with Liverpool, particularly lively.

However, it took the help of VAR to get them back in the game just before the hour mark.

Brych had waved away appeals for a foul by Nelson Semedo on Steven Zuber before awarding Portugal a penalty as play broke down at the other end, but overturned his initial decision.

Rodriguez drilled home the resultant spot-kick much to the fury of the home supporters at the Estadio do Dragao.

The Swiss could then have gone in front when Benfica forward Haris Seferovic headed just wide.

By contrast, Portugal had one of the deadliest finishers in football history on the end of their chances.

“Congratulations to Portugal. They had street smarts, they had the cherry on top of the cake and that made the difference. Four shots, three goals,” said Switzerland coach Vladimir Petkovic.

Silva was the creator for Ronaldo to drill home his second of the night two minutes from time.

Moments later the hosts sealed their place in the final on the counter-attack as Ronaldo curled into the far corner for his 88th international goal.

After 90 minutes of intensifying atmosphere between the two nations that led to minor quarrel and five yellow cards, Nguyen  Anh Duc struck the blood during the injury time with a header that OH Leuven’s goalkeeper Kawin Thamsatchanan was unable to stop.

It was the 12^th goal of the 33-year-old Duc, a Becamex Binh Duong forward who has represented Vietnam’s senior team since 2006.

Thailand once again failed to redeem their pride against the neighbouring country after the U23 team suffered a 4-0 defeat in the AFC U-23 Championship Qualification in March.

Vietnam, winner of the AFF Suzuki Cup last year, will play the Saturday’s final game with Curacao who beat India 3-1 in the other game competed earlier in the day. Thailand and India will compete for the third place.

Playing in front of the full house, Thailand had no fear against the Queens of the Caribbean, trading blows with the tall and powerful opponents before falling  29-31 25-13 28-30 25-20 14-16 in the most entertaining showdown of the Bangkok stop so far.

The Kingdom failed to return the favour to Dominican who beat them 3-0 12 months ago at this venue. Out of eight matches since week No 1, Thailand have lost five with three wins from each of the three Pools.

Thailand face a daunting task against Turkey, the 2018 silver medalists, who outclassed Bulgaria 3-0 (25-14 25-9 25-23), in the last match of the Pool on Thursday.  Turkey extended their impressive run to 7-1, Bulgaria still have yet to win a match from eight attempts.

The two-day camp features 34 boys and 34 girls from across Asia Pacific who will compete for the opportunity to represent the region in the Jr. NBA Global Championship in Florida in August.

The event will feature 68 participants from 10 countries across the region (Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam) and focus on technical and tactical skills development in addition to five-on-five competition.  The camp will culminate with the selection of 10 boys and 10 girls who will represent Asia Pacific at the Jr. NBA Global Championship at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World.

The Jr. NBA program in Asia aims to improve youth health and wellness and address growing inactivity by integrating basketball into the local physical education curriculum.  Since its launch in 2014, the Jr. NBA program has reached more than 18 million boys and girls across Asia, teaching the fundamentals of basketball and the program’s core values of sportsmanship, teamwork, a positive attitude, and respect (S.T.A.R.).  The Jr. NBA Coaches Academy – the program’s government-supported train-the-trainers initiative which aims to further local development by establishing standards for how the sport should be coached and enjoyed – has trained more than 62,000 teachers from 37,000 schools across 50 cities throughout Asia.

The Jr. NBA Global Championship will feature boys and girls divisions, separated into U.S. and international brackets that begin with round-robin play and continue with single-elimination competition.  The winners of the U.S. and international brackets will play in the global championship games on Aug. 11.

More than 300 boys and girls from 35 countries participated in the inaugural Jr. NBA Global Championship in August 2018.  During the weeklong event, all 32 teams participated in off-court activities including life skills sessions, Disney park visits, a community service project, and educational meetings with current and former NBA and WNBA players and coaches.  The Central girls (Kansas City, Mo.) defeated the Europe girls team 68-38, while the Central boys (Overland Park, Kan.) defeated the Africa & Middle East boys team 60-50 in the global championship games.

More information about the Jr. NBA Global Championshipcan be found at www.jrnbagc.nba.com.

The victory helped Thailand to restore their pride after losing back-to-back warm-up games to World Cup host France (0-3) and Belgium (1-6) in 10 days.

The Nuengrutai Srathongvian’s team will  return to France tomorrow to prepare for the World Cup which runs between June 7 – July 7. The Kingdom are in the same group along with defending champion and world No 1 USA, Sweden, No 9, and Chile, No 39.

The Thai team kicks off their actions against the US on June 11 at Roazhon Park, Rennes.

“There is no chance of him not taking part in the Copa America,” Caboclo told press on the sidelines of the FIFA congress in Paris.

“We are following the matter closely and we have complete confidence in Neymar, we know what kind of man he is and what of sportsman he is,” he said.

Neymar, 27, is accused of raping a Brazilian woman in a Paris hotel in mid-May after two months of exchanges on social media culminated in her flying to Paris to meet him.

Neymar denies the rape.

He is currently in Brazil preparing for the Copa, which takes place in the country from June 14 to July 7.

Caboclo said that if Neymar were a target for hecklers, the striker would have to accept it.

“He’s one of the world’s top players, I believe the fans can work things out, given how crucial he could be for us,” Caboclo said.

Neymar posted a seven-minute video on Instagram on Saturday denying he had raped the woman after she accused him of sexually assaulting her at a Paris hotel in May.

In the video, he showed what he said was a series of WhatsApp messages with the woman, including topless photographs of her in bed.

Police in Rio said Sunday they had launched an investigation into the publication of intimate information on social media concerning the woman.

In the latest twist in the high-profile case, the Sao Paulo-based firm representing the woman said they had dropped their client after she changed her story, Globo TV reported Monday.

World number 38 Vondrousova beat Croatian 31st seed Petra Martic 7-6 (7/1), 7-5 to become the first teenager into the semi-finals since eventual champion Jelena Ostapenko in 2017.

Konta became the first British woman in 36 years to reach the semi-finals when she defeated Sloane Stephens of the United States 6-1, 6-4.

Vondrousova had to dig deep to reach her maiden semi-final.

She trailed 3-5 in the first set and gave up a 5-2 lead in the second set, squandering three match points in the process before she held her nerve to win.

Her victory over Martic came despite having lost all four of their previous meetings including at the Australian Open in January and in the final of the clay court event in Istanbul in April.

“She had beaten me four times but I think Roland Garros must be my lucky place,” said the Czech.

She shares a 1-1 head-to-head record with Konta but the Briton won their last meeting on clay in the Italian Open quarter-finals on the eve of Roland Garros.