Muguruza, Halep set up French Open semifinal duel
PARIS — Garbine Muguruza’s big strokes overwhelmed Maria Sharapova right from the start. Their French Open quarterfinal Wednesday was no contest at all, a 6-2, 6-1 one-way journey.
Simona Halep went from out-ofsorts to on-target against Angelique Kerber, scrambling to every ball and staying the course to erase an early deficit. Halep pointed her right index finger at her temple when she eventually completed a 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-2 comeback to reach the semifinals, too. “I never gave up. So I think that’s why I won today,” Halep said. “My head won it.”
When the top-seeded Halep and No. 3 Muguruza meet Thursday, their contrasting styles will match up with plenty at stake. The winner earns a berth in the final at Roland Garros — plus the No. 1 ranking that currently belongs to Halep.
The women got their matches done before rain arrived at Roland Garros, leaving the men’s quarter-finals suspended in progress. That might very well have been a relief to 10-time champion Rafael Nadal, who was not at his best and dropped a French Open set for the first time since 2015.
Nadal lost the opener 6-4 against 11th-seeded Diego Schwartzman but began to play better after a rain delay of just under an hour. Nadal was serving for the second set at 5-3, 30-15, when another shower came and action was halted for the day.
In the other men’s quarterfinal, No. 3 Marin Cilic and No. 5 Juan Martin del Potro were at 5-all in a first-set tiebreaker when the matchup of past U.S. Open champions was stopped.
The other women’s semifinal is the first at the French Open featuring two Americans in 16 years: No. 10 Sloane Stephens against No. 13 Madison Keys in a rematch of last year’s U.S. Open final. Stephens won that one.