Only Djokovic has won more matches than 22-year-old Thiem this season, and the consolation for the Austrian is that he will make his top-10 debut next week.
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The No. 12-seeded Goffin had set point in the tiebreaker and led Thiem 4-2 in the third set before Thiem reeled off nine straight games to lead 5-0 in the fourth.
He saved another break point with a forehand victor at 4-1 but couldn’t save a second, hitting a backhand long, for Djokovic to then serve for the set at 5-1.
PARIS World number one Novak Djokovic will play his French Open semi-final on Friday away from the main show court after organisers were forced to stage four semi-finals on the same day in the rain-ravaged grand slam tournament.
Murray becomes the first Briton into the Paris final since Bunny Austin in 1937. Meanwhile, defending champion Serena Williams powered into the French Open quarter-finals on Wednesday, but Timea Bacsinszky dumped out sister Venus as the Swiss continued her love affair with Paris.
The world no. 1 will tackle Andy Murray, who ended Stan Wawrinka’s reign as the champion, in Sunday’s title match in what will be the Serb’s 20th Grand Slam final. What’s the point of this?’ The court won’t get better. Her misses kept coming, until she was a set and a break down in the French Open quarterfinals.
When Thiem twice got his racket to huge smashes from Djokovic, the No. 1 then clenched a fist in triumph when a third smash finally zipped beyond the Austrian’s reach in the seventh game, which the Serb won to go 5-2 up. His match against Thiem was taken to the Court Suzanne Lenglen, which was unusual as the French Open men’ s singles semifinalists normally play successively in Court Philippe Chatrier in stead of playing at the same time. They have played a total of three matches on the red dust, with Berdych picking up one of them.
“It was unbelievable ambience, atmosphere on the Suzanne Lenglen”, he said.
Williams made 24 unforced errors in the opening set – Putintseva made just two – before eventually finding her form. “It’s been ages. I’m sure she’s a better player now than then”, said Venus Williams, who is seeded No. 9.
Muguruza is up a break and leads 7-5, 4-3 in her French Open final against Serena Williams.
Top seed and defending champion Serena Williams kept alive her hopes of a record-equalling 22nd Grand Slam title, beating Kiki Bertens 7-6 (7), 6-4 in the semifinals on Friday.
Williams was dangerously close to being unceremoniously ousted in straight sets by the unheralded 21-year-old Russian before staving off defeat and finishing with a strong third set.
Bacszinsky made her name here a year ago where she went to the semifinals and took the first set off Serena Williams before succumbing in three sets. In the victory, Murray won 79 percent of his first serve points and 61 percent of his second serve points. On both occasions, Putintseva faded after a tight first set.
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For Djokovic, it will be his fourth consecutive day on court. Some might even suggest that Muguruza has had an easy path to the finals – she faced an unseeded Shelby Rogers in the quarterfinal and has only faced two seeded opponents thus far, in Stosur and No. 13 Svetlana Kuznetsova.
