Petkovic Shocks Errani To Advance To Semis; Halep Cruises Past Kuznetsova
The final four in the women’s draw at the French Open is all set, as two more tickets to the semifinals were punched on Wednesday at Roland Garros.
The 28th-seeded Andrea Petkovic of Germany reached her first Grand Slam semifinal as she defeated 10th seeded Italian Sara Errani in straight sets 6-2, 6-2. Petkovic did not pose a consistent serve on the afternoon but used excellent returns and groundstrokes to control the match.
The match result was a bit of a shock to a lot of people as the Italian Errani had been playing excellent tennis in recent weeks. Errani, who lost in the finals to Maria Sharapova in 2012, only smashed 11 winners to Petkovic’s 26. The Italian led 2-1 in the opening set before a light rain came over Roland Garros, and Petkovic was able to break her serve to swing the match. She then reeled off five straight games to take the first set 6-2.
“I had a very good game plan from my coach. It didn’t work in the beginning, so I was getting a little, not panicked, but when you have a certain game plan and you lose the first two games and it’s not working, so I was kind of getting a little worried,” said Petkovic. “I was lucky that I started playing better and that I was putting more balls into play.”
The sun would come back out at the start of the second set and the match was all Petkovic’s. She broke Errani’s serve early in the second and never looked back, cruising to the 6-2, 6-2 straight set victory.
The German now advances to her first career Grand Slam semifinals and draws a matchup with fourth-seeded Romanian Simona Halep who cruised past 2009 French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova by the same score, 6-2, 6-2.
Halep is the highest-remaining seed left on the women’s side and will now play the lowest-remaining seed in the draw, Petkovic. The winner of that match will take on the winner of Maria Sharapova and Eugenie Bouchard for the French Open title.
