Stephens sets up semis clash with Keys
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I grew up in the States where we don’t really have red clay. Even playing on clay, it was green clay, which is much faster MADISON KEYS, 13th seed
PARIS: Sloane Stephens set up a French Open semi-final showdown against fellow-american Madison Keys after comfortably overcoming wily Russian Daria Kasatkina 6-3 6-1 on Tuesday.
The 10th seed, who beat Keys to win the U.S. Open last year, showed impressive patience in some cat-and-mouse exchanges and eventually overpowered the 21-year-old with her bigger game.
Stephens needed 42 minutes to win a first set full of long baseline rallies, but was unstoppable in the second set as Kasatkina’s game began to crack.
“This is really exciting for American tennis and I’m really excited to play my really good friend,” she said on court.
The 25-year-old had never got beyond the last 16 of the French Open until this year.
Keys reached her maiden French Open semi-final, rallying from a break down in the opening set to claim a solid 7-6(5) 6-4 victory over Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva on Tuesday.
The American 13th seed, playing in her third consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final, trailed 5-3 in the quarter-final before she stepped up a gear and made the last four without dropping a set.
“I grew up in the States where we don’t really have red clay. Even playing on clay, it was green clay, which is much faster and much different,” she told reporters.
“So my first real experience on red clay, it was when I was 16 or 17. It’s been a little bit longer for me to get used to it, but I feel like every year I get more comfortable.”
Although her preparations for Roland Garros were troubled by a rib injury which forced her to retire in Rome, Keys felt good.
‘LOAD OF C**P’
Keys says the notion that she is too nice to win is “a load of c**p”.
Keys was understandably all smiles as her career-best run on the Paris clay continued, and in her post-match media conference the 13th seed insisted prior suggestions that she does not possess the mean streak required to win were without basis.
“I have actually been told quite often that I’ll never win or do well because I’m too nice of a person and I just don’t have it,” she said.
“I think that’s a load of c**p, but, you know, it’s just me. I don’t think you have to be mean in order to win matches.
“I think there’s a difference between being intense and wanting it and fighting and just not being nice, so that’s something that I have always stayed true to.