Serena Williams’ dream of winning all four grand slam titles in the same year is still alive despite her looking all but out on her feet in Thursday’s French Open semi-finals.
Playing on the hottest day of the tournament so far, the 33-year-old American superstar struggled badly with her physical condition throughout a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 win over Swiss surprise Timea Bacsinszky.
Walking slowly between points and looking thoroughly miserable, it was the fourth time in this tournament that she has had to battle back from the loss of the first set.
But her fighting spirit came through in the end and now only Lucie Safarova, the Czech 13th seed, stands between her and reaching the halfway stage of a calendar-year Grand Slam previously achieved by only three other women – Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court and most-recently Steffi Graf in 1988.
It would also leave her with 20 grand slam titles, just two shy of Graf’s Open-era record of 24.
Safarova, at 28, reached her first grand slam final after 12 years of trying, following her run into the Wimbledon semis last year.
She defeated the 2008 Roland Garros winner Ana Ivanovic 7-5, 7-5 in a nervy, mistake-ridden encounter which preceded the Williams match.
A late blossomer, whose nice-girl reputation belies a steely determination, Safarova would be best advised not to look too closely at the record books as she has a dismal 0-8 losing record against the top seed and two-time former champion in Paris.
It is a prospect apparently which does not trouble the Brno-born player.
Talking before the Williams match ended she said.
“I mean Serena is number one in the world, great player. So whoever will be there, I will just go there and play my game and obviously try and get the trophy.”
In her favour might be exactly what condition Williams will be in when they both get to Saturday afternoon’s final.
Coughing and spluttering she was forced to abandon her courtside interview immediately after clinching the win over Bacsinszky after saying just a few words.
What she did manage was: “I kept trying to find the energy and keep fighting. I wasn’t feeling well.”
She was then seen on TV being comforted and helped away to the locker rooms by her French coach Patrick Mouratoglou, who has been credited with reviving her flagging career after a shock first round loss in Paris in 2012.
Against Bacsinszky, the 23rd seed who had battled against all the odds to reach her first grand slam final at the age of 26, Williams started strongly.
But Bacsinszky wasn’t intimidated and broke for 3-2 with a searing crosscourt backhand off a Williams’ second serve.
Williams, who went into the tie having lost just three of her 26 grand slam semi-finals, was clearly suffering in the 29-degree heat.
Her breathing was laboured, she wearily demanded more and more ice-towels during changeovers and was looking increasingly disorientated.
The blonde Swiss outsider had nothing to lose and played like it.
She saw two set points disappear and then face down a break point in the 10th game but wrapped up the opener when Williams overhit an easy forehand drive.
Williams fought off five break points in the fifth game of the second set but was broken when she fired a desperate backhand wide.
At the changeover, Williams’s coughing spurts became so loud that they echoed around the arena courtesy of the courtside microphones.
But somehow she dug deep, retrieved the break and then raced away with the second set having won four straight games.
Rejuvenated, the top seed broke for 1-0 in the decider, backed it up with a double break for 3-0 and again for 5-0 as Bacsinszky wilted.
Safarova lost the first three games of the contest against Ivanovic and was 5-2 down at one point before rattling off five games in a row.
She continued to dominate an erratic Ivanovic in the second, but three double faults had her shaking her head at 5-4 before she made sure on her next serve to set up the biggest match of her career.
Unlike Williams she has yet to drop a set.
Safarova too good against Ivanovic
Earlier, Safarova reached her first grand slam final at the age of 28 on Thursday when she defeated former winner Ana Ivanovic 7-5, 7-5 in a mistake-ridden French Open semi-final.
The Czech 13th seed will play either top-seeded American Serena Williams or Swiss 23rd seed Timea Bacsinszky in Saturday’s final.
Safarova is the first Czech woman to reach the French Open final since Hana Mandlikova won the title in Paris in 1981. Prior to this year, her best showing had been a run into the last 16 in 2007 and 2014.
“It’s a dream come true. I still cannot believe it,” she said after converting her third match point.
“I started too slowly, but I tried to pick up my level and started to play really aggressively because that was the only way to get the win.”
Ivanovic, the champion at Roland Garros as a 20-year-old in 2008, had to battle hard to get into the last four, three times going the full distance.
In contrast Safarova had not dropped a set, winning five straight tie-breaks, one of those coming in the first set against defending champion Maria Sharapova in the round of 16.
But it was the Serb, watched by German World Cup-winning footballer Bastian Schweinsteiger, who made the stronger start.
She raced into a 3-0 lead on the back of a service break in the second game before Safarova opened her account.
On the hottest day of the tournament so far, Safarova was close to going into an early meltdown as Ivanovic staggered her with some superb line drives.
The Czech player, making just her second appearance in a grand slam semi-final after last year’s Wimbledon, knuckled down, however, to hold her next three serves and then redeemed her earlier loss with a break in the ninth game.
It was the turn of Ivanovic to struggle as Safarova won four games in a row and then served out for the first set to zero thanks to some dismal shot-making from the Serb.
Safarova staved off break points to level at 1-1 as the second set got underway and she promptly broke the Ivanovic serve for a third time to ease ahead.
The 13th seed was dominating the match now, with Ivanovic looking more and more out of sorts, and she had break points to go 4-1 up.
Ivanovic survived those, but her game was clearly off.
Safarova looked headed for a comfortable win, but inexplicably her serve collapsed at 5-4 and three double faults allowed Ivanovic to stay alive, finally converting a second break point after nine failures.
But it was only a stay of execution as Ivanovic failed to hold serve in the next game and Safarova this time made no mistake to record the biggest win of her career to date and book a place in the final.
She will be hoping her opponent in that won’t be Williams as her record against the 19-time grand slam champion is a depressing, for her, 0-8.
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