French Open: an unlikely women's final is set

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Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia returns the ball during the women's singles semifinal match between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia at the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, June 10, 2021. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

Unseeded Czech player Barbora Krejcikova beat 17th-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece 7-5, 4-6, 9-7 in the women's singles semifinals of the French Open on Thursday.

Krejcikova will meet Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, ranked 31st, in the finals as the Russian saw off another unseeded Tamara Zidansek 7-5, 6-3.

All the four semifinalists had their first appearances at a major tournament, the first time since the Australian Open in 1978.

Krejcikova won two major doubles titles, while Pavlyuchenkova was winless in her previous six major quarter-finals before she reached the personal high in the French Open.

The match between Krejcikova and Sakkari almost had a dramatic ending as Sakkari's forehand striker hit the baseline when Krejcikova held a match point.

A video replay showed the ball was clearly long, but the referee went down to take a close look of the marks left by the flying ball and called it good.

"He came and he's like, 'It's in,' and I'm like, 'No, no, no, no, no, no. Why?'" Krejcikova said at the after-match press conference.

The match was replayed and Krejcikova needed her fifth match point to book her first Grand Slam final berth.

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