Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia reached the French Open semifinals yesterday with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Kaia Kanepi of Estonia.

It was a tougher match than expected for Kuznetsova, though as rank outsider, Kanepi had her back-pedalling in the first set with the weight of her groundstrokes.

The fourth seed will play compatriot Dinara Safina for a place in Saturday's final.

Safina pulled off a second successive miracle comeback to reach her first career Grand Slam semifinal.

In a virtual carbon copy of her stunning fourth-round win over top seed Maria Sharapova, Safina came back from a set and 2-5 down, and saved a match point, to beat compatriot Elena Dementieva 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-0.

The 13th seed ran away with 11 of the last 12 games of an enthralling quarterfinal and will now face another Russian, Svetlana Kuznetsova, for a place in Saturday's final.

The last, and only time, Kuznetsova and Kanepi had met was in the junior girls final here in 2001, when the Estonian won on her way to taking the world No 1 junior ranking.

They went different ways after that, Kuznetsova basing herself in Spain to further her career, while Kanepi elected to stay at home.

The Russian went on to win the US Open title in 2004 and was runner-up here last year as well as rising to second in the world.

Kanepi struggled to make the switchover to the seniors and she has yet to win a WTA Tour level title.

She was the first to threaten, though, breaking serve in the sixth game when Kuznetsova netted a forehand drive.

But the Russian bit back immediately to level the scores and then broke serve for a second time to lead 6-5. A confident service game to love followed as Kuznetsova went one set up in 54 minutes.

That visibly settled the Russian, who had sped into the last eight for the loss of just 19 games, the fewest by any player apart from second seed Ana Ivanovic.

She grabbed early breaks in the third and fifth games of the second set and that appeared to deflate Kanepi, the first Estonian to play in a Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Kuznetsova was fully in command and she raced away to reach her fourth Grand Slam semifinal.

In other action, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic set up the semifinal clash the French Open had demanded on Tuesday while Ana Ivanovic suggested only a minor miracle could stop her from being crowned the new queen of Roland Garros.

Three-time champion Nadal evidently wanted the party to start early as he celebrated his 22nd birthday in style by battering fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro for the loss of a paltry three games.

Not even Nadal had won more clay matches than Almagro this season, but the second seed made it look like men against boys as he bulldozed his way to a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 win, his 26th consecutive victory on the red Paris dust.

Nadal was facing his first right-hander at this year's event, but for all the resistance Almagro offered he may as well have played left-handed as the champion once again showed his astonishing powers of retrieval and pace generated from the most unlikely angles.

"Uno, uno!" Almagro roared to the heavens in frustration as he finally started to produce the service form that had seen him crack a tournament-best 78 aces on his way to the quarters.

But it was too little too late, and Almagro's miserable day was summed up when he slammed a straightforward overhead into the net to hand the insatiable Mallorcan victory.

Asked what had happened in the match, he deadpan replied: "Didn't you see? Well, I think there was a guy called Nadal on the center court, and he played much better than me."

Djokovic and Latvian Ernests Gulbis, former hitting partners at the Niki Pilic academy in Munich, took to Court Suzanne Lenglen like a couple of giggling schoolchildren caught with their hands in the sweet jar.

(Agencies via China Daily June 5, 2008)