Serena Williams cruises past Sara Errani to set up French Open semi-final against Timea Bacsinszky

Paris // Top seed Serena Williams set up a semi-final clash with Timea Bacsinszky at the French Open after defeating Italian 17th seed Sara Errani 6-1, 6-3 on Wednesday.

Williams, who is looking for her third title at Roland Garros and 20th career grand slam crown, will face Bacsinszky after the Swiss 23rd seed beat unseeded Belgian Alison van Uytvanck 6-4, 7-5 in the day’s other quarter-final tie.

The American had lost the first set in each of her last three matches in Paris but on this occasion she meant business right from the off, breaking immediately to lead 2-0 on the central Court Philippe Chatrier.

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The diminutive Errani, who was the runner-up at Roland Garros in 2012 and lost to Williams in the semi-finals a year later, broke back straight away but once more she could not hold her own serve and fell 3-1 behind.

Williams then saved another break point against her in the following game with a brilliant cross-court forehand and, with Errani struggling against her opponent’s power, she broke again before serving successfully to take the first set in just 27 minutes.

The second set was tighter, going with serve until Williams broke in the seventh game to lead 4-3, and she then went on to clinch victory on her fourth match point in a marathon ninth game as the match concluded in just one hour and five minutes.

Williams, who has now won all nine of her meetings with Errani, was too powerful for the Italian, producing 39 winners to just nine for her opponent and conjuring 11 return winners against Errani’s weak serve.

“In the last three matches I lost the first set and today I knew I needed to play very well because she is very good here at Roland Garros, so it was very important for me,” Williams said.

Bacsinszky is through to her first grand slam semi-final after repelling a battling performance by Van Uytvanck on Court Suzanne Lenglen in a match that lasted an hour and three quarters.

The Swiss got off to a great start, breaking twice early on to lead 3-0. Van Uytvanck then got one break back but could not find another and Bacsinszky took the opening set 6-4.

Van Uytvanck, the unseeded world No 93 who was the first Belgian to appear in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros since Justine Henin won the title in 2007, kept fighting and an exchange of breaks ensured that the second set was poised at 5-5.

But that was when Bacsinszky broke again, leaving her serving for the match. And the 25-year-old daughter of Hungarian parents converted her first match point with a terrific backhand down the line.

“It is absolutely extraordinary, just incredible. I’m very proud of my run,” said Bacsinszky after becoming the first Swiss woman to reach the semis in Paris since Martina Hingis in 2001 and the first at any grand slam since Patty Schnyder at the Australian Open in 2004.

“It was a very difficult match. She was in the quarters because she had played very well so I had to battle like crazy, back to the wall.”

Bacsinszky, who beat fourth seed Petra Kvitova in the fourth round, has lost both of her previous meetings with Williams, on clay in Rome in 2010 and in straight sets in the quarter-finals at Indian Wells earlier this year.

Williams is the heavy favourite to win the title, with the other semi-final pairing seventh seed Ana Ivanovic, the Serbian who was the French Open champion in 2008, with Czech 13th seed Lucie Safarova.

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Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion

The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.

Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".

The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.

He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.

"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.

As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.

Sole survivors

Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.