Stephens to face Halep for title at French Open

Simona Halep emphatically ended the impressive French Open run of 2016 champion Garbine Muguruza with a 6-1, 6-4 victory in the semifinals on Thursday. Halep’s fourth chance to win her first Grand Slam title will come against reigning U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens, who beat a mistake-prone Madison Keys 6-4, 6-4 in the first all-American semifinal at Roland Garros since 2002. Halep assured herself of retaining the No. 1 ranking and reached her third final in Paris.

She lost both of the previous ones in three sets, to Maria Sharapova in 2014 and to Jelena Ostapenko last year.

“I will try my best,” Halep told the crowd at Court Phillipe Chatrier, “and hopefully I will be better than last year.”

The Romanian also came up one victory shy of a major championship at the Australian Open in January, beaten there by Caroline Wozniacki.

That means Saturday’s final at the French Open will be Halep’s third title match in the past five Grand Slam tournaments. The 10th-seeded Stephens had never made it past the fourth round in Paris until now.

In two rain-interrupted men’s quarter-finals that were suspended on Wednesday evening, No. 1 Rafael Nadal completed a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 comeback over 11th-seeded Diego Schwartzman, and No. 5 Juan Martin del Potro defeated No. 3 Marin Cilic 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3, 7-5. Nadal reached his 11th French Open semifinal as he bids for a record-extending 11th title at the clay-court major. Del Potro got back to the semifinals in Paris for the first time since 2009. They will play each other on Friday. The other men’s semifinal is also Friday, pitting No. 7 Dominic Thiem of Austria against 72ndranked Marco Cecchinato of Italy.