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The 23-year-old was ranked 85th and had never
won a main draw match at the French Open when she took the court
against former U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu in the first
round.
The dream run that started with the win over the Canadian ended
in the semi-finals on Thursday against Russian Anastasia
Pavlyuchenkova but not before she had become the first Slovenian
player to reach the semi-finals at a Grand Slam.
"I've learned that I can play good against top players and that
I can play good at tournaments like this," Zidansek told
reporters. "I'm just going to try to take it all in and prepare
for the next tournaments.
"I think we all dream of making it big at Grand Slams ... I
remember, I played juniors Grand Slam first round and I was like
completely overwhelmed. It took me a few years to kind of get
used to the big tournaments.
"The fact that I managed to play this well, got this far, just
shows me that I can play at the big stage."
Zidansek will take home a check of 375,000 euros (about
$457,000) and will rise to a career-high spot when the rankings
are updated on Monday.
Zidansek rued her missed opportunities against the Russian on
Thursday but was not too downhearted.
"I showed myself and I've learned that at this stage it really
is, I'm going to say, 90% a mental game, just about going out
there and believing in yourself, believing in your game," she
said, adding that she might be able to add a physiotherapist to
her team with the big prize purse.
($1 = 0.8214 euros)
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; editing by Ed Osmond)
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