Bodo: Is Louisa Chirico here for the long haul?

12:35 PM ET

A week ago, 19-year-old Louisa Chirico wasn’t even sure it was worth hanging around Madrid. She was waiting to see if she might get into the qualifying tournament for this week’s Premier Mandatory combined event.

On Thursday, thanks to a tidy 7-6 (1), 6-2 win against Australia’s Daria Gavrilova, Chirico is in the semifinals of the tournament without a seeded player left to keep her out of the final.

A native of New Jersey, Chirico grew up playing pretty much everything. She narrowed it down to two sports, tennis and soccer. She betrayed her Mia Hamm crush and chose tennis. Chirico has said it was partly because the one-on-one sport is unpredictable, like boxing. It’s a good mindset for a tennis player to cultivate.

Chirico showed signs of taking her game to a new, post-adolescent level in recent weeks. Armed with a wild card, she made it to the round of 16 in Charleston, with wins over Lucie Safarova and Naomi Osaka. Chirico also qualified on the red clay at Stuttgart, where two of her three wins were over quality opponents, Daniela Hantuchova and Camila Giorgi. Chirico didn’t lose a set against either of them.

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