Halep, Petkovic race into semis
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, June 5, 2014
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Workers remove water from the tarpaulin covering on the central court. |
Fourth-seeded Romanian Simona Halep reached her first grand slam semifinal with a 6-2, 6-2 win over former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova at the French Open yesterday.
Halep, 22, goes on to face Germany's Andrea Petkovic, who will also be appearing in her first semifinal at a major, for a place in Saturday's title match.
Halep had never previously got beyond the second round in Paris but she was too strong for her 28-year-old opponent who won her second career major at Roland Garros in 2009.
Kuznetsova, the 27th seed, was never able to sustain a serious challenge after having her left thigh heavily strapped at the end of the first set.
Halep, who was the 2008 junior champion at Roland Garros, is bidding to become just the second Romanian woman to triumph in Paris after her manager Virginia Ruzici took the 1978 title.
In a match delayed by three hours because of heavy rain, Halep broke for 2-0 in the first set and although Kuznetsova evened the contest at 2-2, that was as good as it got for the Russian.
Halep reeled off the next four games to take the first set and from 1-0 down in the second, she stretched out to a 5-2 lead. She overcame a nervy final service game where she served up two double faults, before coming through when Kuznetsova netted a forehand return.
Petkovic reached the semifinals after outplaying 10th seed Sara Errani of Italy 6-2, 6-2.
The Bosnian-born outsider, who is the lowest seed in the women's draw at 28, reached her first grand slam semifinal after having made the quarterfinals at Australia, Roland Garros and the US Open in 2011.
Errani won the first two games of the match before Petkovic reeled off six in a row to take the opening set 6-2 in 27 minutes.
Behind a first serve percentage of 91 percent, the 26-year-old, who reached a personal high of world No. 9 in 2011 before a spate of injuries derailed her career, broke Errani's serve seven times in total, as she wrapped up the match in just over an hour.
She fired off 26 winners, many of them from a powerful backhand, while Errani could only muster 11 winners and had a first serve winning percentage of just 39 percent.
Errani failed in her bid to reach a third straight Roland Garros semifinal.
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