Garbine Muguruza and Samantha Stosur set up a semi-final clash at the French Open on Wednesday, while defending champion Serena Williams brushed aside concerns about a busy playing schedule in Paris.
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Serena Williams moved a step closer to winning a record-equalling 22nd grand slam title as she mounted a fightback to beat surprise package Yulia Putintseva and reach the semi-finals of the French Open.
But by the end, too, Williams was asserting herself as no one else now on tour can, winding up with twice as many winners as Putintseva, 36-18. She managed to produce only six winners in the match and committed 24 unforced errors.
Serena Williams of the US returns the ball to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina during their fourth round match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium, Wednesday, June 1, 2016 in Paris. While Djokovic won the U.S. open, Australian Open and Wimbledon.
That was a win that also allowed him to become the first player to break through the $100 million prize money barrier.
“It was a hard moment, and it was even more hard to come back”.
The top seed and defending champion defeated the world number 60 from Kazakhstan 5-7, 6-4, 6-1.
Williams hadn’t lost a set in the tournament until this match, and this was more like a year ago at Roland Garros, where she was forced to win five three-setters on the way to the championship.
Venus Williams, the oldest in the women’s field, dropped eight straight games in loss to Timea Bacsinszky. Williams had to withdraw from the Mutua Madrid Open with the flu, meaning Rome would be her only French Open lead-up event.
“I think it’s definitely a whole new ballgame”, Williams said. “I didn’t play my best in the third round and I really wanted to come out and do a lot better and prove that I can do better than that”. But Williams improved her play in the second set, reducing her errors and holding on after Putintseva rallied from 4-1 down to even the set at four games apiece. Putintseva, 21, is winless in three matches against Williams. But I’m happy to have gone through it, and I now have the experience where, if I have some pains, I know I need to stop.
Putintseva, 21, was making her first appearance in the last eight at a slam but it was Williams who looked nervous. “Four in a row?” When we play regular tournaments you play four, five matches in a row. It s something you just get used to.
Putintseva posted a rain-delayed 7-5, 7-5 win over No. 12 seed Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain.
But his bank balance will be the last thing on the world number one’s mind as he once again tries to capture that elusive first title at Roland Garros and complete a career Grand Slam.
Both Simona Halep and Eugenie Bouchard followed up winning the title in Nuremberg with long runs in Paris in the last few years, and Dutchwoman Bertens said with a smile: “M aybe there is something in the food there”.
On the men’s side, top seed Novak Djokovic was pushed to four sets, but he still took down No. 14 Roberto Bautista Agut, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-5.
The American’s 6-1, 6-1 scoreline to reach the French Open quarter-finals on Wednesday tells its own story; and it was a tale deserving a better stage than a sparsely populated Roland Garros centre court.
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That was Bertens’ fourth win over a seeded player in this tournament, including against No. 3 Angelique Kerber in the first round.
