The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Halep to face Stephens in French final
PARIS — 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 in 2017.
“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.
“I’m happy,” she said, “that I can have another chance.”
The 10th-seeded Stephens had never made it past the fourth round in Paris until now. After sitting out nearly a year because of an injured right foot that needed surgery in January 2017, she has soared up the rankings and now made it to her second major final in the past ninth months.
“Another great opportunity on Saturday, and I’m really looking forward to it,” said Stephens, whose late father, John, was the 1988 NFL offensive rookie of the year with the New England Patriots.
She improved to 3-0 against her longtime pal and Fed Cup teammate Keys, including their U.S. Open final 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.”
Like Halep, Stephens is an incredibly talented defensive player, and she kept stretching points until Keys would err. In all, Keys made 41 unforced errors, 30 more than Stephens.
Muguruza, a two-time major champion, entered the semifinals having not lost a set in the tournament. She also was coming off a lopsided victory in the quarterfinals a day earlier, overwhelming five-time major champion Maria Sharapova 6-2, 6-1.
But it took Muguruza quite 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 in only 15 minutes 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.
The second set was more of a test for Halep, who was ahead by a set and 3-0 before falling apart against Ostapenko a year ago.
Muguruza’s last stand came at 4-all in the second set, a 13-minute game in which she held three break points. But she failed to convert any of those, and Halep held there, before breaking at love to end it.
In two rain-interrupted men’s quarterfinals 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 is bidding 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 today, when the other men’s semifinal is No. 7 Dominic Thiem of Austria against 72nd-ranked Marco Cecchinato of Italy.
That Nadal would reach a record 11th French Open semifinal at Roland Garros was hardly surprising.
That he trailed by a set and a break before rain delays allowed him to change tactics and recover to get there? Now that, certainly, was unusual.
Del Potro got choked up after waiting nearly a decade to return to the final four in Paris — and dealing with three wrist operations in the interim.
Nadal quickly announced Thursday that he was not going to be as passive as he was in the early going against Schwartzman, seizing 12 of the initial 13 points after they stepped out under a blue sky and pulling away at Court Philippe Chatrier.
Across the way at Court Suzanne Lenglen, No. 5 del Potro got distracted by a spectator right before a key double-fault, then marched over toward the stands to try to figure out who it was.
Otherwise, he stayed steady in a win over Cilic in a matchup between two past U.S. Open champions.
After del Potro served out his victory at love to get to his first semifinal at the claycourt Grand Slam tournament since 2009, he sat in his changeover seat, chest heaving. The 6-foot-6 Argentine wiped away tears during his on-court interview, telling fans: “It has been a long time without good feelings on my body.”