adminMaria Sharapova was one game from defeat before battling back to beat Spain’s Garbine Muguruza in the French Open quarter-finals. The Russian, who won the title in 2012, wrested the initiative from Muguruza to win 1-6 7-5 6-1. The 27-year-old goes on to face Eugenie Bouchard, after the Canadian beat Carla Suarez Navarro 7-6 (7-4) 2-6 7-5.
Sharapova and Bouchard both showed their fighting qualities to recover from perilous positions in their quarter-finals.
Muguruza, the unseeded 20-year-old who beat Serena Williams in the second round, broke three times to win the first set against Sharapova in 27 minutes and led 5-4 in the second, but Sharapova hauled her way back.
The seventh seed broke early in the third and saw off five break points in a 14-minute game at 2-1 before powering to the finish line.
Bouchard, 20, came back from 5-2 down in the first set and 4-2 down in the third as she battled to control Suarez Navarro’s heavy topspin.
The Canadian, who reached the Australian Open semi-finals in January, double-faulted on her first match point but took her third with a raking forehand into the corner.
In the men’s draw, Novak Djokovic tamed the huge serving of Milos Raonic to remain on course for a first French Open title.
The world number two won 7-5 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 to reach the semi-finals, where he will play Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis.
It is a sixth Roland Garros and 22nd major semi-final for Djokovic.
A victory in Sunday’s final would make the 27-year-old the eighth man in history to complete the career Grand Slam.
Raonic, 23, had looked like a potential stumbling block, having taken Djokovic to three tough sets in Rome recently.
The first Canadian man to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final in the Open era, the eighth seed’s massive serve and improved all-round game made him a serious threat.
Both men knew that opportunities were likely to be fleeting, and it was Djokovic who proved the more clinical.
A set point for the Serb went begging in game 10 but a brilliant backhand pass gave him another two games later, and a scrambling Raonic poked his volley wide.
The second set passed without a single break point for either man, and again it was Djokovic who raised his game in the tie-break, pushing his man out wide and drawing an error for 6-4.
Djokovic duly converted the second, on his own serve, and raised his fist to coach Boris Becker and the rest of his team in the stands.
Raonic fought back from 0-40 to deuce in the following game, but when two forehand errors gave Djokovic the break anyway, the contest was as good as his. — BBC Sport
Online Reporter