Filed under: Tennis, French Open
Francesca Schiavone moved to within a victory of successfully defending her title after putting paid to French hopes with a straight sets semi-final win over local favourite Marion Bartoli.Not since Justine Henin in 2007 has a woman earned back-to-back French Open crowns, but the imposing Italian will start as favourite to do just against the enterprising Chinese Li Na, who took advantage of an error-strewn display from an out-of-sorts Maria Sharapova to book her second Grand Slam final appearance this year.
Bartoli failed in her bid to become the first home finalist in Paris since Mary Pierce in 2005, wasting break points in a pivotal third game of the second set which would have put her 3-0 ahead, before losing her serve in the seventh to spell the beginning of the end for the idiosyncratic 26-year-old, who went down 6-3, 6-3 in an hour and a half.
Fifth-seed Schiavone, 30, overturned a two-game deficit to win six of the subsequent seven in taking the first set in 40 minutes in difficult, blustery conditions on Court Philippe Chatrier to set the tone for what proved to be a rather routine victory that left the home crowd flat.
She will now face Li, was in celebratory mood after upsetting Sharapova in straight sets. The Chinese player was simply too good for the Russian, who contributed to her unexpected demise with a host of unforced errors, the match suitably ending with a 10th double fault from the out-of-sorts former Wimbledon champion.
"She normally has such a good serve, so I was praying for her to double fault at the end on match point so I could go through," a candid Li admitted.
A 6-4, 7-5 victory in a little under two hours was fully deserved, and saw the in-form 29-year-old gain ample revenge for her three-set defeat to Sharapova in Paris two years ago.
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