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Que Sara, Sara! Errani rolls into final
Stuns Stosur to continue French Open fairytale; takes on Sharapova in her first Grand Slam final. Around the park
Italy's Sara Errani crushed the French Open hopes of Samantha Stosur of Australia on Thursday, reaching her first Grand Slam final with a 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 win.
In Saturday's championship match, the 21st seed will go up against Maria Sharapova, who will take over as the new World No 1 when the rankings are released on Monday.
Sharapova beat Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-3 to enter her first French Open final. She is aiming to win a title at Roland Garros to complete her career Grand Slam.
“It's an amazing feeling to be in my first final. I have been in two semi-finals but it was always my dream of getting to the final stage,” said Sharapova.
“That's pretty special. After my shoulder surgery, my ranking was out of the 100 in the world, but I thought if I could be number one in the world before that then I could do it again.”
Sharapova, the 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open champion, will become just the 10th woman to complete a career Grand Slam if she takes Saturday's final.
Standing tall
Errani, the nimble-footed Italian, who stands only 1.64 metres tall, had been expected to struggle with Stosur's high, kicking serve and heavy topspin groundstrokes, but after losing the opening two games she quickly got on top.
She stepped inside the baseline to take the Stosur serve early and edged the first set with some deep, penetrating groundstrokes.
"I have no words, it's incredible," she said.
"It was very windy and one side was easy and the other side more difficult. It's an amazing feeling. I did not expect this and I can't believe it."
The Australian struck back, however, with a dominant display of power hitting in the second set which she wrapped up in only 36 minutes.
The 28-year-old Stosur might have hoped her experience would help her kick-on in the decider, but it was the favourite who froze on the big stage.
The 21st seed claycourt specialist had already knocked out former champions Ana Ivanovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova.
