Stosur, Errani reach French Open semis
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former runner-up Samantha Stosur and rising Italian Sara Errani were Tuesday's quarterfinal winners at the French Open.
The sixth-seeded reigning U.S. Open champion Stosur handled 15th-seeded diminutive Slovak Dominika Cibulkova 6-4, 6-1 in 1 hour, 25 minutes on Court Chatrier at Stade Roland Garros. Cibulkova piled up 28 unforced errors and was broken five times on Day 10.
Stosur trailed 0-1, love-40 in the second set before taking charge and winning the last six games of the match. The 2010 French Open runner-up is now 48-0 in Grand Slam matches after winning the opening set.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The last few years have been very good to me in Paris," Stosur said. "I love playing in Paris and it doesn't get any better than this."
The 28-year-old Aussie Stosur will meet the 21st-seeded Errani in Thursday's semifinals. Stosur is a perfect 5-0 lifetime against Errani, including a straight-set victory in Rome just last month.
Errani upset 10th-seeded German Angelique Kerber in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2), in 1 hour, 39 minutes Tuesday on Court Lenglen. The match featured 10 service breaks, including six by the winner from Bologna.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The gritty Errani will now compete in her first-ever Grand Slam semifinal.
The 25-year-old Errani, who already owns three clay-court titles this season, had been 0-28 against top-10 players prior to Tuesday. She beat a pair of former French Open champs in Ana Ivanovic (2008) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (2009) in her previous two matches here.
"If I'm here, it's because I'm playing good, so I want just to think about that and think about fighting and (doing) my best," Errani said of her upcoming bout with Stosur. "How it goes, we will see."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}With the win over the lefthanded Kerber, Errani will now become the highest- ranked Italian woman on the planet, ahead of former French Open champ and 2011 runner-up Francesca Schiavone.
The women's quarterfinals will wrap up on Wednesday when second-seeded Russian star Maria Sharapova faces 23rd seed Kaia Kanepi of Estonia and fourth-seeded Czech Petra Kvitova will tangle with non-seed Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan. Shvedova toppled defending French Open champion Li Na here on Monday.
Sharapova is a former world No. 1 and three-time major champion who needs a French Open title to complete a career Grand Slam. Kvitova captured her first career major title last year by beating Sharapova in the Wimbledon finale.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The 25-year-old Sharapova was also this year's Australian Open runner-up.
This year's first-time French Open champ will pocket $1.5 million.