Halep, Sharapova showdown

PARIS: Simona Halep became the first Romanian woman to reach a Grand Slam final in 34 years Thursday when she beat Andrea Petkovic 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) to set-up a French Open title clash against Maria Sharapova.
The 22-year-old fourth seed swept to victory in 90 minutes.
The last Romanian in a final at a major was Halep’s manager Virginia Ruzici, who was champion at Roland Garros in 1978 and then finished runner-up two years later to Chris Evert.
The former world junior No.1 had never previously got beyond the second round in Paris, but the woman voted the most improved player of 2013 has raced through the tournament without losing a set.
Despite her higher ranking, Halep will start as the outsider against seventh seed Sharapova in Saturday’s final.
The Russian is in her third Roland Garros championship match having won the title in 2012 and holds a 3-0 winning record over Halep although the Romanian pushed her to three sets in the Madrid claycourt final earlier this year.
“It’s very emotional to win and reach my first Grand Slam final,” said Halep.
“Andrea’s a great player but I think I was a little bit stronger. I tried my best and did everything I could to win the match.” She knows she will have to step up her performance against four-time major winner Sharapova who made the final for the third year in succession with a three-set win over Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard.
“In Madrid I took the first set. I played my style and was aggressive. But then I played too far behind the baseline so I will need to open up the court.” On Thursday, she was 4-1 ahead in just 14 minutes courtesy of two breaks of the German 28th seed who was also playing in her first major semifinal.
Halep fired three aces in the opener and allowed the 26-year-old German just seven points off her serve.
Petkovic briefly rallied with a break to lead 3-1 in the second set but then handed the advantage straight back to the speedy Halep.
The German was finally undone in the tiebreak when Halep wrapped up the semi-final with a sweeping, running forehand.
Petkovic, who spent two and a half hours more on court than Halep getting to this stage, can still reflect on a successful tournament.
The former world No.9 was ranked at 177 in March last year after battling a series of knee and back injuries and failed to get out of qualifying for the 2013 Roland Garros event.

Nadal, Murray matchup

Briefly, and only briefly, Rafael Nadal was in a difficult spot in the French Open quarterfinals.
For the first time in this year’s tournament, the eight-time champion dropped a set.
And this had to be on Nadal’s mind: His opponent, David Ferrer, could present real problems. Not only is Ferrer ranked No. 5, and not only was he the runner-up at Roland Garros a year ago — to Nadal, of course — but he also beat Nadal on red clay the last time they played each other.
So how did Nadal handle this test? Perfectly. From late in the second set, he won 10 games in a row, and 13 of 14 the rest of the way, to come back and beat Ferrer 4-6, 6-4, 6-0, 6-1, setting up a semifinal Friday against Wimbledon champion Andy Murray.
“At the beginning,” Nadal acknowledged, “David was playing with a higher intensity than me.”
But once Nadal made a key adjustment — deciding to dispense with his surprisingly off-target backhand as much as possible and instead do whatever he could to use his topspin-heavy forehand — he took over.
The route Murray took during his 6-4, 6-1, 4-6, 1-6, 6-0 victory over No. 23 Gael Monfils of France was far more circuitous, finishing right on the cusp of dusk after 9:30 p.m. In front of a crowd loudly pulling for Monfils at Court Philippe Chatrier, Murray was terrific at the outset, mediocre in the middle, then closed on a high.
After a brief discussion with a tournament official over whether there was enough sun to play the fifth set — the Roland Garros courts have no artificial lights — Murray made the whole thing moot. He raced through that set in 21 minutes, winning 24 of 31 points, as Monfils appeared to stop trying.
“Everything happened very fast,” Monfils said.
Said Murray: “It was so dark at the end. Thankfully for me, he played a poor fifth set once I got ahead.”
Murray will be playing in the French Open semifinals for the second time; he lost to Nadal in 2011. In all, Nadal owns a 14-5 edge in their head-to-head matches.
“I need to recover very well,” Murray said, “and try to be especially calm for that one.”
The other men’s semifinal will be No. 2 Novak Djokovic against No. 18 Ernests Gulbis.
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