Halep sets up French Open final with Stephens

PARIS: Simona Halep vowed to erase the misery of her 2017 Roland Garros heartbreak after reaching her third French Open final on Thursday where she will face US Open winner Sloane Stephens for the title.

Halep, the runner-up in 2014 and 2017, enjoyed a 6-1, 6-4 victory over 2016 champion and third seed Garbine Muguruza of Spain.Stephens defeated fellow American Madison Keys 6-4, 6-4 having previously never got beyond the quarter-finals in Paris.

“I am really happy that I won the match, it was very important for my mind and I gave it all I had,” said Romanian star Halep.After racing through the first set, Halep saved three break points in a marathon ninth game of the second which lasted 13 minutes.

Halep raced into a 5-0 lead in the first set against misfiring 2016 champion Muguruza who had blasted Maria Sharapova off court on Wednesday for the loss of just three games.The 24-year-old Spaniard stopped the rot in the sixth game before Halep quickly reasserted her authority.

A sweeping, running forehand into an open court gave her the set with Muguruza having managed just two winners.Muguruza settled down in the second set, moving 2-0 ahead before Halep levelled in the eighth game.

That set the stage for the lengthy ninth game where Halep stood firm.The spirit ebbed away from Muguruza, who converted just two of the eight break points she carved out, and a backhand which sailed long sealed her fate in the 10th game.

Stephens defeated Keys in straight sets when she won the US Open last September.On Thursday, it was more of the same as the 25-year-old capitalised on her friend’s big match nerves.

In the first all-American women’s semi-final in Paris since 2002, the 10th-seeded Stephens broke in the third game of the opening set.That was sufficient in a set where 13th-seeded Keys committed 23 unforced errors.

Stephens, who had been just two points from being knocked out by Camila Giorgi in the third round, was quickly 2-0 ahead in the second.She went to 5-2 on a double break and although Keys rallied, the statistics made brutal reading.

She finished with 41 unforced errors with Stephens only needing to fire nine winners to get her home.Meanwhile Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro felled Marin Cilic in a clash of the titans, winning 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-3, 7-5, and will now aim his heavy artillery at 10-times champion Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals.

Del Potro has looked one of the biggest threats to Nadal’s domination this year, with his pulverising forehand dismantling everyone in his path on the Parisian clay.After dropping the opening set of the first round, he won the next 12.

After returning to a sunny Court Suzanne Lenglen locked at 5-5 in the first set tiebreak after the battle was halted because of rain on Wednesday, Del Potro flirted with danger before racking up an eighth win in succession against Cilic.

The first set always looked key and Del Potro clinched the opener as Cilic blinked first.Del Potro said resuming a match at 5-5 in a tiebreak with his serve to come had been a strange situation but his aim was true and he moved 6-5 ahead before his cagey backhand slice induced a poor forehand error by Cilic.

The second set, like the first, was dominated by serve until Cilic fired himself up to break at 4-4 — a furious Del Potro throwing his racket at the changeover.The burly Argentine recovered his usual unflustered demeanour, hitting back from 0-2 to take the third set.

Former Roland Garros junior champion Cilic, bidding to reach the semi-finals for the first time after falling in the quarter-finals 12 months ago, kept his nose in front in the fourth.But Del Potro bided his time, applied some pressure at 5-5 and the Australian Open runner-up Cilic cracked.

Serving for the match, Del Potro was given an easy ride as Cilic blazed three backhands in succession long. Rafael Nadal lost his first set at the French Open since 2015 but that blip did not prevent him from marching into the semi-finals with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Diego Schwartzman in their rain-delayed match.