The women's French Open semi-finals will feature the two best players in the world - and two players who only dreamed of making it this far.

Then world number one Iga Swiatek, champion in 2020 and 2022, faces Beatriz Haddad Maia, who had never made it beyond the third round of a Grand Slam before this tournament.

There will be live commentary on both matches on the BBC Sport website and app.

Top two on course to meet in final

Swiatek, 22, and Sabalenka, 25, are seeded first and second respectively and have been considered among the favourites for the title since the tournament began.

Should they meet in the final then the world number one position would also be on the line with Swiatek's 62-week run at the top under threat.

Sabalenka would have overtaken Swiatek in the rankings if the Pole had lost her quarter-final on Wednesday, but she defeated American teenager Coco Gauff in two sets, just as she did in last year's final.

Swiatek has been in fine form at Roland Garros and not dropped a set in her five matches.

"I didn't spend too much time on court so I'm happy it was a tighter match," said Swiatek after her 6-4 6-2 win over Gauff.

"I'm pretty fresh and will be ready no matter what. Not having a day off was something I knew since the beginning of the tournament so I'm ready."

Sabalenka had lost in the third round at Roland Garros in the past three years but has now reached at least the semi-finals at all four Grand Slams.

"I'm super happy to be in another semi-final," said Sabalenka following her 6-4 6-4 quarter-final win over Ukraine's Elina Svitolina.

Having declined to attend open news conferences for her mental wellbeing after a series of political questions, Sabalenka resumed her regular media duties after that win.

Belarusian Sabalenka has been under pressure to distance herself from Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia president Vladimir Putin and who is providing military support in the invasion of Ukraine.

Sabalenka said on Tuesday that she did not support Lukashenko "right now" or the war, adding: "I don't want to be involved in any politics. I just want to be a tennis player."

'I have nothing to lose'

Muchova, 26, made the last four at the Australian Open in 2021 and then the quarter-finals of Wimbledon before an abdominal injury kept her out for seven months.

She dropped to 235th in the world rankings and ended 2022 151st.

But she reached the quarter-finals of the WTA 1000 tournaments in Dubai and Indian Wells and claimed a huge victory over eighth seed Maria Sakkari in the opening round in Paris.

"It's been an incredible two weeks and I'm just glad I'm still in the competition," said Czech Republic's Muchova, who will return to the top 20 after the tournament.

While Muchova has made a Grand Slam semi-final, it will be a whole new experience for 27-year-old Brazilian Haddad Maia.

"My first goal was to be in the third round - I had never won a second-round match before in a Grand Slam," said Haddad Maia.

"When I won the third round, I said, 'OK, now I reach another goal'. Every step we pass through makes us stronger."

Haddad Maia, who served a 10-month doping suspension which ended in 2020, was involved in a near four-hour epic against Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo in the last 16 before fighting back from a set down to beat seventh seed Ons Jabeur in the quarter-finals.

"It's not easy to be set down against Jabeur, and she was playing well," said 14th seed Haddad Maia.

"When the match was done, I looked to my team and said, 'we made it' - and I'm very excited for what is coming."

Haddad Maia beat Swiatek in their only previous meeting, on a hard court at the Canadian Open in Toronto in August, winning 6-4 3-6 7-5.

"She's the number one and one of the best players we have from the last year," said Haddad Maia.

"She's young, she's a nice person, she has already won twice here.

"I'll try to enjoy it and I'll try to play every single point. I'll leave everything on the court. I have nothing to lose."

What else is happening on Thursday?

Japan's Miyu Kato has the chance to end an eventful competition with a trophy as her and Germany's Tim Puetz play in the mixed doubles final against Bianca Andreescu from Canada and Michael Venus of New Zealand.

On Sunday, Kato, 28, was disqualified from the women's doubles after she hit a ball girl with a ball.

Kato offered her "sincere" apologies to the youngster for the "unfortunate mishap", saying it was "completely unintentional".

In the men's wheelchair singles, British top seed Alfie Hewett, a three-time champion at Roland Garros, plays in the semi-finals against third seed Gustavo Fernandez of Argentina.

Britain's Lucy Shuker is in women's wheelchair doubles action as she and American Dana Mathewson play French pair Pauline Deroulede and Emmanuelle Morch in the quarter-finals.

SUNRISE, Florida -- Florida Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour went through a life-changing 36 hours this week, from suiting up in his first Stanley Cup Final game to becoming a first-time father.

It wasn't the plan for those events to overlap. And Montour nearly missed the birth of son Kai because of hockey.

Montour was in Las Vegas for Game 1 of the Panthers' series against the Golden Knights on Friday when his wife, Ryian, went into labor back east. Montour didn't find out until after the Panthers' 5-2 loss and was immediately whisked onto a nerve-wracking cross-country flight to Florida.

"I was getting texts from her parents just with where she was at. They didn't think I was going to make it," Montour told reporters Wednesday after the Panthers' practice. "So, I honestly didn't sleep at all. Got right there to Boca [Raton], went to the delivery room, and it was kind of game on from there, and he came at noon. We were joking, but it was like as soon as I got there, it was straight to work -- for her, not me. I didn't obviously know when he was going to come; I was a little upset, and I tried to get there as quickly as I could. But luckily, I was there ... and got the experience with her."

The 29-year-old said his wife was supposed to be induced on June 14, right after Game 5 of the series, when the Panthers would be home. Kai, naturally, had other thoughts. The back-and-forth adventure -- Montour was on a plane back to Vegas for Game 2 hours after meeting the little one -- should be good preparation for the unpredictability of fatherhood.

"We had a little excitement before we even left [for Game 1]; we thought maybe it was going to happen [then]," said Panthers coach Paul Maurice. "But good that he was there for it. Monty is a physical specimen. He can handle a little fatigue, and I think it was just a good way for him to get used to becoming a father, or a mother for that matter. Sleep debt is your life for the next couple of years. [Being there] for the birth was really a good thing to happen. He missed the first drive home; we had a laugh about that. But he'll be there for a lot of firsts."

Montour was hoping Kai's arrival might be a good luck charm for the Panthers in evening the Cup Final with a Game 2 victory. That didn't come to fruition as Florida fell 7-2 and now trails the Golden Knights 2-0 as the series shifts to Panthers home ice for Game 3 on Thursday.

Still, Montour felt the love from his teammates in the wake of a momentous personal occasion.

"They're great," Montour said. "Obviously I have family back home, but this is my family when I'm at the rink, and we all care about what's going on in our lives, and they're excited for me. Unfortunately, Game 2 didn't end the way we wanted, but we tried to have that motivation of a new baby in the world to help us out. It's nice to come back and try to get back to business as quickly as you could."

Florida hasn't trailed in a playoff series since its first-round matchup against Boston, when the Panthers came back from a 3-1 hole to eventually beat the Bruins in seven. Montour had five goals in that matchup, and Florida could use more of those contributions from him now. The Panthers have been outscored by Vegas 12-4 in the Cup Final, thanks in part to terrific goaltending by Adin Hill (.939 SV%).

Montour predicts Florida can find a way to crack Hill -- and watch the floodgates open from there.

"He's a good goalie. You've got to get in his face, make it tougher to see," Montour said. "I'd like to bear down on my chances. I've had a few in the last couple of games here. He's made some big saves. He's playing well. A team like that, they don't give much. We've got to get one here, and hopefully they can keep trickling in."

SUNRISE, Fla. -- The Florida Panthers expect to have defenseman Radko Gudas in the lineup for Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final after he was injured during their Game 2 loss in Las Vegas.

Panthers coach Paul Maurice also confirmed Wednesday that goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky will be his starter for Thursday's game after he was pulled in Game 2.

The Panthers trail the Golden Knights 2-0.

Gudas was injured on a hit by Golden Knights forward Ivan Barbashev with 13:23 left in the first period Monday night. The rugged Panthers defenseman left and did not return. Gudas has three assists in 18 games for Florida while averaging 17:02 minutes, but his physicality has been a difference-maker on the back end.

"He's a huge, huge part of our team. We really hoped he was going to play," Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said.

Bobrovsky was pulled after 27:10 in Game 2 after giving up four goals on 13 shots. One of the most dominant goalies of the postseason, Bobrovsky has given up eight goals on 46 shots in two games against the Golden Knights.

Goalie Alex Lyon, who began the postseason as Florida's starter before Bobrovsky replaced him in Game 3 of the first round against Boston, gave up three goals on 15 shots after taking over in Game 2.

Lyon said Wednesday that he held out hope he would have gotten the Game 3 call with the game in Florida.

"It's a tough decision," Lyon said. "I try to look at it from a coach's perspective as much as I can, because I don't want to be let down and get my hopes up and then be storming around the locker room.

"You always think about that. I mean, I think it's my job to be a competitor. It's my job to compete. We have a great relationship, but I want to take his job. I want to be in his status. Obviously, I'm realistic in that situation, but I just think it's my job to do that. And I think that he would say the same thing back to me."

Maurice bristled at the notion that Bobrovsky's status could even be questioned.

"I think you guys have too much time on your hands," Maurice told reporters Wednesday. "Maybe there's just too many of you. Do you guys get together and divide up the question pie?"

"It's rude, by the way, your question, because he was outstanding in Game 1 and he was as good as our team was in Game 2. Forty-eight hours before that, you've got [Matthew] Tkachuk and Bobrovsky and how are they going to divide the Conn Smythe [Trophy]. I'm not mocking your question, I understand it. But it seems to me things have gotten slightly more extreme. He was a pretty good goalie in Game 1."

The Los Angeles Kings have signed Vladislav Gavrikov to a two-year contract extension, securing one of the top defensemen who would have been available in free agency.

A pending unrestricted free agent, Gavrikov's contract has an average annual value of $5.875 million through the 2024-25 season. Most of his contract will be paid out in signing bonuses: $10.2 million in total, with a base salary of $775,000 in those two years. The contract also carries a no-movement clause.

Gavrikov, 27, had 19 points in 72 games between the Kings and the Columbus Blue Jackets last season. Known more for his physical defense rather than his offense, he averaged 21:58 in ice time per game. He saw time with both defensemen Drew Doughty and Matt Roy with the Kings.

The Kings acquired Gavrikov in a trade-deadline deal with the Blue Jackets that also included goalie Joonas Korpisalo. More notably for Los Angeles, it was the trade that sent Stanley Cup-winning franchise goalie Jonathan Quick out the door.

Los Angeles set up this deal with a three-way trade involving Columbus on Tuesday. The Kings sent defenseman Sean Walker and goalie Cal Petersen in a package to the Philadelphia Flyers for defenseman Ivan Provorov. They kept 30% of Provorov's salary and then traded him to the Blue Jackets for veteran defenseman Kevin Connauton. The trade opened up slightly over $4.8 million in additional cap space.

For Gavrikov, the two-year term will bridge him though the NHL's currently stagnant salary cap. Commissioner Gary Bettman said recently that the salary cap might only rise $1 million to $83.5 million in 2023-24. There have been projections showing that cap could rise to well over $90 million by the 2025-26 season.

It’s not Rory McIlroy’s job to tell Jay Monahan the baby’s ugly. That handwringing can come from all corners of social media. But in the wake of arguably the most seminal day in PGA Tour history, it’s worth following the Northern Irishman’s logic on the path forward.

For those who took Tuesday as a mental health day and avoided phones, social media, television and the most casual of conversations, the Tour announced a “framework agreement” with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. The agreement also includes the DP World Tour and LIV Golf, but as McIlroy was quick to point out when he met with the media Wednesday at the RBC Canadian Open, this is not a “merger” between the Tour and LIV Golf.

The truth is, we don’t know exactly what this is, with three notable bullet point items:

No. 1 – The Tour, the PIF and LIV Golf will end its ongoing antitrust litigation in U.S. Circuit Court.

No. 2 – The PIF is poised to invest in a new for-profit entity that may or may not include a team element and currently does not have a name.

No. 3 – Tour players who joined LIV Golf and were suspended by the Tour, some would argue vilified by the Tour, will be allowed to “re-apply for membership” with the PGA Tour and European circuit after this year.

Without anything even close to details, it’s impossible to speculate what a Tour-PIF product will look like and given widespread pushback from players it promises to be a contentious and drawn-out out process. But if finding a secret sauce that will allow the two sides in the most heated back-and-forth in the history of professional golf is going to be difficult to conjure, the path back for those who took the LIV Golf leap seems, at least at the moment, untenable.

“What that looks like for individual players in terms of keeping a Tour card and bringing players back into the fold and then that sacrifices other people, that's where the anger comes from, right. And I understand that,” McIlroy said. “There still has to be consequences to actions. The people that left the PGA Tour irreparably harmed this Tour, started litigation against it. We can't just welcome them back in. That's not going to happen.”

McIlroy’s voice on this issue carries for a number of reasons. He’s a member of the Tour policy board which will decide what the path back looks like for the LIV defectors. He’s also been the most outspoken critic of the breakaway league.

But all that likely misses the most important element to reconciliation. Like many others, McIlroy passed on untold riches from the Saudi-backed league to remain loyal to the PGA Tour. For the record, McIlroy told reporters that he “was never offered any money” by LIV Golf, and while that’s undoubtedly true, it felt like semantics.

McIlroy has been an ardent opponent of LIV Golf and its Saudi backers from the earliest stages, so there was really no reason for league CEO Greg Norman to reach out and check the temperature. However, had McIlroy even hinted at the slightest interest in joining, it’s not difficult to imagine how quickly the Great White Shark would have penned that check.

Now that the Tour and PIF have found common ground and work is underway to provide those who left with a path back, players like McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Scottie Scheffler and countless others must be thinking, “What about me?” For those who didn’t take the LIV Golf payday and remained loyal to the Tour there will be an overwhelming desire to “make this right.”

Late Tuesday, Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was asked about the concept of making those who stayed “whole.”

“Ultimately what you're talking about is an equalization over time, and I think that's a fair and reasonable concept,” Monahan said.

Exactly what that looks like remains unknown but as Tuesday’s groundbreaking news unfolded it was the elephant in the crowded room.

“I mean, the simple answer is yes,” McIlroy said when asked if those who remained loyal to the Tour should be made “whole financially.” “The complex answer is how does that happen, right. And that's all a gray area and up in the air at the minute.

“It's hard for me to not sit up here and feel somewhat like a sacrificial lamb and feeling like I've put myself out there and this is what happens.”

Money can certainly appease any of those who are demanding a pound of flesh, but the other side of this coin is how will those who did take the money and joined LIV Golf, who put their name to the antitrust lawsuit against the Tour and publicly scoffed about their former circuit, be welcomed back?

Will there be punishments and fines and lengthy suspensions for those who joined LIV? Pressed for details, Monahan had no definitive answers which did little to bring down the temperature in the room. If Tuesday’s meeting at the Canadian Open is any indication, Monahan and the Tour should anticipate a healthy amount of skepticism from across the membership.

Blind trust is in short supply these days and a normally ambivalent membership appeared dangerously curious following news of the agreement and what many perceived as an unacceptable amount of secrecy.

“I have a lot of work to do,” a haggard Monahan allowed Tuesday.

He also has a long line of people demanding answers to historically complicated questions.

In case anyone forgot amid all the madness in professional golf, a PGA Tour event will be played this week. 

And that tournament — the RBC Canadian Open — will feature the highly anticipated professional debut of Ludvig Aberg. 

The 23-year-old Swede earned his Tour card by finishing No. 1 in the PGA Tour U ranking this year following his senior season at Texas Tech. He also won consecutive Ben Hogan Awards, joining Jon Rahm as the only player to accomplish that feat.  

So, hello, world. 

"The last couple of weeks has been pretty intense," Aberg said Wednesday ahead of his pro debut. "But it's something I've been preparing for for a long time and now it's actually happening. So I'm super happy about that. I think as a competitor you really look forward to playing those big events. And with majors and Ryder Cups being there, I think absolutely it's in the back of my head. But it's not something that I can necessarily think about right now. All I can do is prepare as good as I can for this week and do as good practice as I can and then be able or be ready to go on Thursday morning."

Aberg's professional welcoming comes on the heels of another highly anticipated pro debut — Rose Zhang's. The 20-year-old, who had one of the most decorated amateur careers ever while at Stanford, won the LPGA's Mizuho Americas Open last week, becoming the first female player to win in their pro debut since Beverly Hanson in 1951. 

Aberg took notice and would like to follow suit. 

"(Zhang is) an unbelievable player, unbelievable person and what she's done is pretty amazing," Aberg said. "If I can do something along those lines, I think I'm doing pretty well. But she had obviously a great college career and she's going to have a great pro career, too. So congrats to her."

And Aberg's game has all the tangibles for success at the highest level. 

"He hits the ball as good as anybody," Oklahoma head coach Ryan Hybl told GolfChannel.com in May. "His putter is as good as anybody. His chipping is as good as anybody. And he acts like a 35-year-old man out there. So I would say overall, he's kind of got all the pieces. Almost the Megatron of who you would want, that's kind of what he looks like."

However, Aberg notes that there's a learning curve from college to Tour golf — on and off the course. And that's prevalent this week with the news that the PGA Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit will unite. Aberg, though, isn't getting wrapped up in all that. 

"This being my first day on my job. So I don't, I don't really know. I mean, there's a lot of changes going on," he said. "I don't necessarily have all that information, so I don't really know, to be fair."

He's just focused on getting in the winner's circle as much as possible — while being himself throughout the process. 

"I'm still going to be the same person," he said. "I'm not going to change anything like that. Stay true to who I am. See where that takes me."

BEREA, Ohio -- Browns Pro Bowl running back Nick Chubb said he'll be "playing for" Jim Brown this season in wake of the legendary Cleveland running back's death last month.

"Being able to know him was definitely special," Chubb said. "Definitely a blessing. Being drafted here and playing after such a great running back was a blessing."

Brown died on May 18 at the age of 87. He played nine seasons for the Browns and led the league in rushing in eight of those years. The Pro Football Hall of Famer also was named a Pro Bowler every year he played and led the Browns to the league championship game three times, winning the title in 1964. After Brown died, Chubb said that former Browns general manager John Dorsey sent him a message, telling him that Brown had been instrumental in convincing Cleveland to select Chubb in the second round of the 2018 draft.

"Just hearing that, it was a blessing," Chubb said. "He saw something in me and it's special."

Chubb has since gone on to become the most prolific Browns running back since Brown. The two now own the eight best rushing seasons in Cleveland history.

Chubb, however, noted that their conversations rarely centered on football.

"The most impactful thing [he told me] is probably just stand for what you believe in," Chubb said. "He was a strong man. He stood up a lot of things and he was himself. I think that's the biggest thing I take from it. Just always be true to yourself."