Halep stops Muguruza in her tracks

PARIS: Top seed Simona Halep reached her third French Open final when she stopped hard-hitting Spaniard Garbine Muguruza in her tracks with a 6-1 6-4 semi-final victory yesterday.

The Romanian, who will also keep hold of the world number one ranking as a result of the victory, made a flying start and was 5-0 up in quick time as Muguruza made some wild errors.

Muguruza ratcheted up the intensity in the second set and broke in the third game when a powerful return forced an error, only for Halep to fight her way back to level at 4-4.

A marathon ninth game proved pivotal as Halep saved three break points to pile the pressure on the third seed.

Halep then seized her chance, moving 0-40 ahead and then raising her arms in triumph as Muguruza blazed a backhand long. She will face Sloane Stephens in her fourth grand slam final.

Meanwhile, Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro felled Marin Cilic in a French Open clash of the titans, winning 7-6(5) 5-7 6-3 7-5 yesterday, and will now aim his heavy artillery at 10-times champion Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals.

Nadal lost his first set at the French Open since 2015, but that blip did not prevent him from marching into the semifinals with a 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-2 victory over Diego Schwartzman in their rain-delayed match yesterday.

The world number one had looked out of sorts in damp conditions on Wednesday as Schwartzman bombarded him with winners to cause him all sorts of problems, with the Argentine leading by a set and a break when the players were first called off court due to rain.

It was a very different story when the contest resumed yesterday in drier conditions as Nadal won 12 of the first 13 points before cruising into the last four.