Shortly after Aniek van Koot secured a success at Roland Garros on Thursday in testing conditions, the Dutch star had a pressing concern to address.

On a day where the wind whipped through Paris, the three-time Grand Slam singles champion was keen to freshen up after a 6-3 7-5 triumph over Japan’s Manami Tanaka.

“I think my whole mouth is still full of clay. You can feel the clay scratching your teeth. It is disgusting,” she said.

“But it's okay. There is a Dutch saying, ‘Clay biting. Clay eating.’ And that is what we are here for. You are grinding on the clay.

“It was very windy and I think that made it tricky. That was a difficult match. It was just so windy.”

Now 34, van Koot has been a star in wheelchair tennis for almost two decades, excelling among a field of talented rivals including legendary compatriot Diede De Groot.

Her singles successes came in the 2013 Australian and US Opens, along with a superb triumph at Wimbledon in 2019, and she also has 24 major doubles titles to her name.

But the Roland Garros wheelchair singles championship has eluded her, with van Koot a runner-up on three occasions in 2012, 2014 and 2015.

A decade on from her most recent appearance in the singles final in Paris, the right-hander will play South African Kgothatso Montjane on Friday for the opportunity to contest another.

Digging through her closet recently, the right-hander unearthed a keepsake from her first trip to Paris to compete 17 years ago, namely the Roland Garros towel from 2008.

It was another reminder to her that, while she strives to get better every day on the court, trophies and titles are not the sole measures of success in tennis.

“I’ve never won in singles here, so we will see how that goes,” she said.

“But just in general, I have the nicest job there is. I am fortunate. I am good at something and I can make it my job, and I get to travel to places around the world. I get to do that with a fantastic coach and a fantastic national team who are really nice people.

“It took me a while to realise that, for the 20 years that I've been playing, how nice it actually is. I've come to the age, not that I'm old, but I appreciate it much more. I don't take this for granted.”

The Dutch champion and her South African rival have played 32 times previously, with van Koot leading the head to head 27-5.

The other semi-final features No.1 seed Yui Kamiji, who won the Paralympic singles and doubles in Paris last year, and Li Xiaohui, who is an emerging Chinese talent.

Van Koot said it was good to see new players challenging the world’s best and believes depth of wheelchair tennis is extremely strong.

“The level of tennis keeps rising and you need to be better every day,” she said.

“You need to put in more work than your colleagues because if you don't put in the same work, you're going to be behind, because everyone's talented and everyone's working hard.”

In the men’s wheelchair singles, No.1 seed Tokito Oda will play third seed Martin de la Puente from Spain. Second seed Alfie Hewett takes Argentinian Gustavo Fernandez in the second semi-final.

World No. 1 Niels Vink from the Netherlands will play defending champion Guy Sasson in the decider of the quad men’s wheelchair singles.

The boys’ wheelchair final pits No. 1 seed Maximilian Taucher from Austria against the unseeded Charlie Cooper from the United States.

Brazil’s Vitoria Miranda is through to the girls’ wheelchair singles final and will play American Sabina Czauz.