Reuters
Paris, June 3: Top seed Serena Williams outlasted gritty Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens in two tough sets 7-6 (9-7), 6-4 here Friday to reach the French Open final, where she will play fourth seeded Spaniard Garbine Muguruza with her 22nd Grand Slam singles title at stake. Should Serena win the title, then she will emulate Steffi Graf who also had annexed the same number of Grand Slam titles.
In the other semifinal, Spaniard Garbine Muguruza overcame a bout of nerves to power her way past Australian Samantha Stosur 6-2, 6-4. The fourth seed, runner-up at Wimbledon last year, became the first Spanish woman to reach the Roland Garros final since Conchita Martinez in 2000.
Defending champion Serena, who won the first of her three Roland Garros crowns in 2002, started slowly for the second day running, her early play littered with the unforced errors.
She was broken in the first game by her unseeded opponent who, entering the contest on a 12-match winning singles streak in all competitions showed no sign of nerves in her first major semifinal.
Serena eventually took the first set 7-6 on a tie-break that she edged 9-7, settling into a more comfortable rhythm in the second set, which she won easily.
“The first set was not very easy but I think that today (Friday) I played better. (Bertens) played very well,” Williams said courtside.
After breaking early on Bertens – mixing the occasional dropshot in with powerful groundstrokes, had three chances to break again in the fifth game for what would have been a 4-1 first set lead.
But Serena held and, after saving a set point at 3-5, broke back in the next game with the help of a net chord. She closed out the 57-minute set by bludgeoning a forehand down the line, set up by a powerful serve to end a set that took just under an hour.
Early in the second set, Serena playing on the Phillipe Chatrier court was broken again and she fell behind 0-2. But she broke straight back and conceded just two further games, closing out the match 6-4 on her fifth match point, when Bertens hit a forehand long.
In the other match, Muguruza, 22, made the most of 2010 runner-up Stosur’s early jitters on Court Suzanne Lenglen and used her booming forehand to race into a 4-0 lead in the opening set. She was also well ahead in the second set before Stosur finally made her sweat.
“I played very well until I led 5-2 in the second set and then she stepped up a gear and I became a bit nervous,” Muguruza, looking to become the first Spaniard to lift the trophy since Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 1998, said courtside. “Emotions sometimes can be bad.”
