A lot goes into a good set of tennis. There’s typically drama and simultaneous quality from the players, as well as a close scoreline. Today, Barbora Krejčíková and Maria Sakkari played one of the sets of the year in the deciding frame of their Roland-Garros semifinal, passing the above criteria with flying colors. Krejčíková eventually pulled through, sealing a 7-5, 4-6, 9-7 victory, but not before each player delivered some truly stunning shots under severe pressure.

The set looked to be fairly anticlimactic at first. Sakkari seized an early break at 1-all. Krejčíková had a break point to get back on serve, but despite a lack of depth on several Sakkari backhands, didn’t attack with a backhand down the line and ended up missing a crosscourt groundstroke from that wing. Sakkari held for 3-1 and didn’t face a break point in her next two service games, so when Krejčíková went down 30-40 while serving at 3-5, the end seemed nigh.

Krejčíková calmly played an offensive point, punching away a backhand swing volley at a sharp angle. She went on to hold, forcing Sakkari to serve out the match at 5-4. The nerves finally seemed to strike Sakkari, who made a few unforced errors in the game. After saving a break point with a backhand winner at a similar angle to Krejčíková’s in the previous game, Sakkari faced a second break point.

Sakkari took the initiative on the break point, but Krejčíková came up with some spectacular defense, lifting not one, but two defensive lobs extremely close to the baseline, the second of which nearly bounced over Sakkari’s head. While the 17th seed did well to keep the lob in play, Krejčíková struck a brutally angled backhand that proved unreturnable, evening the set at 5-all.

From that point on, the pressure shifted almost exclusively to Sakkari. Krejčíková began to hold more comfortably, while Sakkari faced a handful of match points in her next service games. She dealt with the pressure astonishingly well, saving one match point with an ace and two with fierce crosscourt backhand winners into the corner. But on Krejčíková’s fifth match point, Sakkari played a heavy-handed drop shot at the end of a strong forehand-to-forehand rally, which Krejčíková sprinted to and punished with a backhand winner into her opponent’s forehand corner. She raised her arms in victory, with her mouth noticeably hanging open for seconds after, perhaps in disbelief or exhaustion.

The stakes in a deciding set where both players have saved a match point are immeasurably higher than those in a typical set. Regardless of the winner, whoever loses will have stood a point away from victory. While the result felt fitting given Krejčíková’s higher level of play in the final games of the match, it is difficult not to feel for Sakkari, and easy to admire her undying resolve after her match point and chance to serve for the match passed her by. Even when the run of play turned against her, she prolonged the match with clutch shots under pressure, celebrating positively after each point won. Though her forehand crumbled at times, she admirably found other ways to win points. Her fight in this match will undoubtedly serve her well in future majors.

While the first two sets of the semifinal had noticeable dips in quality, it is very impressive that as the finish line of the match approached, the level of play increased significantly. Navigating an extended deciding set can be difficult; not only is any break of serve potentially decisive, but a player must manage their energy to last to the undetermined end of the match while playing with enough intensity to seize a break. In taking care of her service games with ease towards the end of the set, Krejčíková shifted most of this burden onto her opponent.

Sakkari may rue the errors she made when serving for the match. But such was the quality in this deciding set that the nail in the Greek’s coffin wasn’t her level not being sufficiently high to win the match, it was that Krejčíková’s imposing play in the end of the match stifled Sakkari’s momentum and shrunk her margin for error. If Krejčíková, now a first-time major finalist, can reproduce this level throughout the final, she could well have Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on her heels.