Stephens in final after winning a ‘friendly’
She beats Keys in straight sets. Nadal rallies, will face Del Potro in semifinal.
PARIS — When the French Open final was played a year ago, Sloane Stephens was nowhere near Roland Garros. She was in Chicago with coach Kamau Murray, working her way back from a foot injury that required surgery and sidelined her for 11 months.
“Indoors on a hard court. Getting ready for grass. Barely walking. Playing tennis next to a bunch of 5- and 6year-old screaming kids,” Murray recalled. “So to be here from there, I think, is rewarding, because those times were not easy.”
The times are good now. Stephens closed in on her second Grand Slam title by beating pal Madison Keys 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday in the first allAmerican semifinal at the French Open since 2002. It also was a rematch of the U.S. Open final won by Stephens last September.
“It’s always hard playing someone from your country and such a good friend,” Stephens said, “so I was really pleased to be able to get through that and play some good tennis.”
The 10th-seeded Stephens’ opponent in Saturday’s final will be Simona Halep, who emphatically ended the impressive French Open run of 2016 champion Garbine Muguruza by defeating her 6-1, 6-4.
On the men’s side, Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del
Potro advanced by winning quarterfinals suspended the night before because of rain. The No. 1-ranked Nadal quickly showed Thursday that he was not going to be as passive as he was in the early going against 11th-seeded Diego Schwartzman, seizing 12 of the initial 13 points after they stepped out under a blue sky and pulling away for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory.
“Totally different guy yesterday,” Schwartzman said. “Maybe the day when you can beat Rafa was yesterday.”
Across the way at Court Suzanne Lenglen, No. 5 del Potro got distracted by a
spectator right before a key double-fault, then marched toward the stands to try to figure out who it was.
Otherwise, he stayed steady in a 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 win over No. 3 Marin Cilic in a matchup between two past U.S. Open champions.
The other men’s semifinal is No. 7 Dominic Thiem of Austria against 72nd-ranked Marco Cecchinato of Italy.
Del Potro now gets what he called “the challenge that every player wants to have” — taking on Nadal at Roland Garros. The 32-year-old Spaniard is 84-2 for his career at the French Open, winning four consecutive titles from
2005-08, another five consecutive from 2010-14, and No. 10 a year ago.
And yet, insists Nadal: “I just go on court knowing that every match is difficult, and I can lose and I can win.”
Halep, who assured herself of retaining the No. 1 ranking with the victory, earned a fourth chance to win her first major title.
She twice has lost in the final at Roland Garros — to Maria Sharapova in 2014 and to Jelena Ostapenko in 2017 — and was the runner-up to Caroline Wozniacki at the Australian Open in January.
“I lost three times until now and no one died,” Halep
said, “so it will be OK.”
Muguruza, a two-time major champion, took a while to get going against Halep, who managed to keep sending ball after ball back over the net.
Backed by fans who loudly chanted her first name between games, Halep went ahead 3-0 with the help of only one winner. Of her first 14 points, 13 arrived via errors by Muguruza — nine unforced, four forced.
It was 5-0 by the time Muguruza eventually claimed a game.
Stephens has been perfect in title matches on the WTA tour, going 6-0.
“I mean, there is no formula.
I didn’t, like, try to do it. I’m not trying to break a record. It’s just how it’s happened for me,” Stephens said, “I think once I get going in a tournament, I’m pretty consistent, which is good. I just try to keep that going.”
She had never made it past the fourth round on the red clay of Paris until now. This year, she was two points from defeat in the third round against Camila Giorgi of Italy before turning that match around.
Stephens hasn’t dropped a set since.
Like Halep, Stephens is an incredibly talented defensive player, and she kept stretching points Thursday until Keys would err.
In all, Keys made 41 unforced errors, 30 more than Stephens.
“It’s really tough to get any ball by her, but especially today, she was neutralizing so well. And she was hitting so many deep, heavy balls, that I really felt like I was having to go for a lot,” said Keys, who is now 0-3 against Stephens.
“There are a lot of times where I feel like she made the ball by a centimeter,” Keys continued, “and I was missing it. Just one of those days where I think she played incredibly well.”