Serena survives scare to reach semis

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Serena Williams of the US en route to her 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 French Open quarter-final win over Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova—AP

Paris, June 4: World number one Serena Williams survived a huge scare to reach her first French Open semi-final since 2003 on Tuesday, defeating unseeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.

Williams, bidding to win just her second title in Paris, 11 years after her first, looked down and almost out at one stage against the 2009 champion.
Despite coasting through the first set, she then dropped serve for the first time in the tournament, being broken three times in the second set, trailed 0-2 in the third and fought off two break points that would have seen her slip to 0-3.
But she battled back, winning six of the next seven games to secure victory in a shade under two hours.
Victory extended Williams’ winning streak to 29 matches as she moved into a semi-final clash against Italian fifth seed Sara Errani, the runner-up to Maria Sharapova last year. “It was very difficult and I am very tired,” said Williams, who is the first American woman since Jennifer Capriati in 2004 to reach the last four.
Williams, who had dropped just 10 games in reaching the last-eight, eased through the first set with breaks in the second and sixth games, sealing the opener with an ace, despite the challenges posed by a tricky, swirling wind inside Court Suzanne Lenglen.
The 27-year-old Kuznetsova took a medical timeout off the court and the treatment worked wonders as she broke for a 2-0 lead in the second set.
The wily Kuznetsova, who had defeated the American at the same stage in 2009 on her way to the title, fended off two break points to go to 3-0 and broke again for 4-0 before Williams clawed one back for 1-4.
But the American then dropped serve for a third time to slip 5-1 down as the Russian forced the errors with a clever mix of power, angles and drop shots.
Williams, however, dug deep, got back to 3-5 and then had break points in the 10th game only for a scrambling, netted backhand to give Kuznetsova the set to level the tie.
It was the first set the top seed had dropped in the tournament.
Kuznetsova kept the 31-year-old American on the back foot and was 2-0 up in the decider and had two points for a 3-0 lead.
The Dubai-based Russian couldn’t make that last push and was made to pay as Williams broke back for 2-2. The world number one was quickly 5-2 ahead and she claimed the tie with a rasping cross-court forehand.
Errani reached the semi-finals for the second successive year with a 6-4, 7-6 (8/6) win over Polish fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska.
It will be the third semi-final appearance at a Grand Slam for the slender Italian, who stands at just 1.64m, after she also went to the last four at the 2012 US Open.
Radwanska, the 2012 Wimbledon runner-up, had won the pair’s last three tour-level meetings.
But she was playing in her first Roland Garros quarter-final, a match which featured 11 breaks of serve.

Tsonga stuns Federer, enters semis
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga sent Roger Federer crashing out of the quarter-finals to take a step
closer to ending France's 30-year wait for a men's champion at Roland Garros.
Sixth-seed Tsonga swept to a 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 triumph to reach his first semi-final in Paris and first by a home player since Gael Monfils in 2008. The 28-year-will tackle Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer for a place in Sunday's final.

Indian challenge ends
The Indian challenge at the French Open ended as Sania Mirza and Leander Paes bowed out of the doubles events with their respective partners on Tuesday.
Sania and her American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands were forced to retire from their women’s doubles pre-quarter-finals following a groin problem to the latter. They had annexed the first set but the American encountered a groin issue in the second set
Later in the day, Paes and Jelena Jankovic fought hard in their mixed doubles second round 5-7, 7-6 (1), 2-10 defeat against eighth seeds American Liezel Huber and Brazilian Marcelo Melo.