Defending champion Serena Williams stormed into the quarterfinals and sister Venus failed to advance in the French Open on Wednesday.
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Defending champion Serena Williams pulled out quite a comeback in the French Open quarterfinals Thursday, coming back from a set and a break down to beat 60th-ranked Yulia Putintseva 5-7, 6-4, 6-1.
Bertens reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final after defeating American 15th seed Madison Keys 7-6 (7/4), 6-3. It’s her 34th unforced error of the match.
The French Open is offering 20-euro ($22) tickets to see men’s and women’s semifinals Friday, including No. 1 Novak Djokovic vs. Dominic Thiem.
But he is one of the in-form players in 2016 with his 41 match wins second only to Djokovic’s 42.
After the rain-ravaged program this week in Paris, Djokovic will be playing for the third successive day as he goes after a 30th Grand Slam semi-final. Either way, no one is going to think Serena will be able to take her finals opponent lightly. “But I came back today with more intensity even though it was a tough mental and physical battle”. After a rain-delayed start, the French Open is beginning to heat up.
Having seen her calendar Grand Slam hopes ended by Roberta Vinci at the US Open past year, Williams then allowed the occasion to get the better of her in the Australian Open final against Angelique Kerber in January.
With this, the youngster, who has won three titles this year, will break into the top 10 when the new rankings are released. In only 62 minutes, Williams managed to hit 27 winners, with the matches ending in 6-1, 6-1.
“I always try to have a plan B and C and go from there”, Williams said after the match. “I think he’s a little bit on a different level than all the other players”.
But the world number one, who next plays Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva, faces the challenge of playing four matches in four days in her pursuit of a record-equalling 22nd Open era Grand Slam title.
Williams is a wonder to watch when she’s on the verge of being upset. Williams, as one would expect, came back with a strong response and won the next three games to lead 4-3.
She looked up in disbelief to her family in the stands, saying afterwards: “I was like, Can you believe it?”
“Four in a row?”
Again, the game was played out in the damp conditions that have plagued the tournament. “It’s what happens”, said Williams. “It’s something you just get used to”. Garbiñe Muguruza has won her last ten sets on the terre battue and is wearing the calm, collected expression of a champion in the making. But the way she rolled her eyes and patted a hand over her heart after outlasting Putintseva 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 was a dead giveaway. Putintseva is 21, 13 years younger than Williams, and had never been past the third round at a major until now.Yet Putintseva scrambled to almost every ball and threw her 5-foot-4 (1.63-meter) frame into deep groundstrokes.
No. 21 seed Samantha Stosur of Australia beat Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 6-4, 7-6 (6).
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The unseeded Bertens, meanwhile, registered a 12th consecutive victory in style as she dispatched Timea Bacsinszky 7-5 6-2.
