Safarova advances to 1st Grand Slam final at French Open
Lucie Safarova advanced to French Open final with a 7-5, 7-5 win over Ana Ivanovic on Thursday.
PARIS (AP) - Lucie Safarova advanced to her first Grand Slam final with a 7-5, 7-5 win over former champion Ana Ivanovic at the French Open on Thursday.
The 13th-seeded Czech player, who upset defending champion Maria Sharapova in the fourth round, has not dropped a set in the tournament.
She will be up against either 19-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams or 23rd-seeded Timea Bacsinszky in Saturday s final.
Safarova is the first Czech woman to make it to the final at the French Open since Hana Mandlikova in 1981.
"It s a dream come true, I cannot believe it" said Safarova, having now beaten two Top-10 players for the first time at the same Grand Slam.
Safarova trailed 4-1 and 5-2 in the first set, before finding her stride and reeling off the next five games. She faltered when serving for the match at 5-4 in the second, though, hitting three double faults including one on match point before getting broken.
"I started a little slowly but I tried to keep up the level and tried to play very aggressive because that was the only way to get a win," Safarova said.
Safarova certainly took risks, hitting 36 winners compared to 31 unforced errors.
She was broken in her first service game as she struggled with Ivanovic s deep balls early on. But she broke back in the ninth game with a powerful backhand return. Ivanovic then made some sloppy mistakes, including two double-faults as she dropped her serve for the second time, and Safarova converted her first set point.
The left-handed Safarova saved two break points early in the second set, and instead it was Ivanovic who dropped her serve. After Ivanovic leveled at 5-5, the change of momentum did not last. The Serb dropped her serve in the next game and Safarova kept a cool head to serve out the match.
