Unseeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia will face third seed Simona Halep of Romania in the final of the women’s singles at the French Open.
In the semi-finals, Simona Halep defeated Karolina Pliskova of Czech Republic 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 and Ostapenko got the better of 30th-seeded Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 7-6(4), 3-6 6-3. Halep, thus, has moved one match away from realising her dream -- becoming a Grand Slam champion and the world No.1 at the same time.
"It is an amazing feeling, I'm so happy. I came through a tough match yesterday, but I just care about today. Karolina is a good player and made it tough,” Halep said. "It is nice to be in the final again, I hope I can play better and win it. I'm playing a young player, it is a big challenge and it will be great to play here on Chatrier again.”
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On the other hand, Ostapenko becomes the first Latvian to reach a Grand Slam final with a win on her birthday. “I am really happy. I love to play here, I love you guys, you’re amazing. I’m just happy with the way I celebrated my birthday,” Ostapenko told the spectators who were shouting ‘happy birthday’. “I was always playing aggressive and hitting the ball when I had a chance. It probably helped me to win today.”
Meanwhile, the battlelines are drawn in the men’s section. Top-seeded Andy Murray of Great Britain will face Swiss Stan Wawrinka, the third seed, in the first semi-final while fourth-seeded Rafael Nadal of Spain will clash with Dominic Thiem of Australia in the second.
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In the mixed doubles final, Rohan Bopanna and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada lifted their maiden Grand Slam trophies as they overcame the opening set loss and a break deficit against French pair Robert Farah and Anna-Lena Groenefeld to win 2-6, 6-2, 12-10 on the match tie-break.
“It’s truly special. As an athlete, when you start playing tennis, you want to win a Grand Slam. I think we relaxed a little more in the second set, and we started playing our game. I think we were trying to do too much as a team,” said Bopanna.
“Just because it was a final, we were trying to go for too much maybe on the returns or even on the serve, for me. After that first set we just stuck to what we do best. We started pushing each other, motivating each other. I think that's what made the difference. Once the nerves calmed down, we played better tennis,” said the Indian.
“It’s very special, it's something that you always dream about as a kid. It's kind of funny, because you never know where the journey is going to take you: singles, doubles, now mixed doubles. I couldn't be more happy. It feels amazing,” declared Dabrowski, the first Canadian woman to win a Grand Slam.
