Sam Stosur storms into French Open final
Sam Stosur conceded just three games to Jelena Jankovic as she booked her place in the final of the French Open.
A semi-finalist at Roland Garros last year, Stosur has defeated four-time French Open champion Justine Henin, current world No. 1 and 12-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams and now former world No. 1 Jankovic to become the first Australian woman since Margaret Court, who won the title in 1973, to reach the final of the French Open.
The 26-year-old now stands on the brink of breaking a Grand Slam title drought for Australia that has lasted 30 years, with Evonne Goolagong-Cawley the last to do it at Wimbledon in 1980.
In today’s semi-final, a dominant Stosur stormed to the first set 6-1 in just 24 minutes as a shell-shocked Jankovic had no answers for the Australian’s barrage of winners.
While Stosur smacked 12 winners in the opening set, Jankovic couldn’t manage even one of her own, as she racked up 11 unforced errors to Stosur’s nine.
The former world No. 1, however, returned to the court in the second set in a much more aggressive frame of mind, hitting six winners of her own in the opening two games as she held serve to love and followed that with a service break as she raced to a 2-0 lead.
Just as Jankovic looked as though she might be on her way to winning an equally lopsided second set, Stosur broke back and after fending off break points on her serve, levelling the set at 2-2.
Stosur combined power and placement perfectly as she worked the angles to create a triple break point on Jankovic’s next service game, and only needed one of them to win her third consecutive game of the set.
The seventh seed’s powerful first serve and potent kicker on the second made it just too difficult for Jankovic to break back in the sixth game of the set.
With Jankovic unable to find a way to break through Stosur’s defences, the world No. 7 did not concede another game on her way to a 6-1, 6-2 victory in exactly an hour.
In the first semi-final of the day, Francesca Schiavone defeated Elena Dementieva by default when the Russian retired from the match after losing the first set in a tiebreak.
The final will now be decided between two players who have never before reached the deciding match of a Grand Slam.
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