Whether she’s enjoying a cafe lunch, shopping on the Champs-Elysees or punishing an opponent on the soft red clay, Maria Sharapova sure enjoys these trips to the French Open.
“What girl doesn’t love Paris?” she said.
Two more wins and she’ll love it even more.
Sharapova moved another step closer to filling in the last piece of the career Grand Slam, defeating Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 6-2, 6-3 yesterday to reach the semifinals at Roland Garros.
Second-seeded Sharapova rolled through her 23rd-seeded opponent in 74 minutes, a much different scene than the three-set win over Klara Zakopalova in the fourth round that took more than three hours.
“I’m happy with the way I improved in this match,” Sharapova said.
Her next opponent will be fourth-seeded Petra Kvitova, the Wimbledon champion who ended 142nd-ranked qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova’s upset-filled run with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory. Sharapova leads their all-time series 3-2, including a win on clay earlier this year in Stuttgart.
In the women’s draw, Kvitova reached the semifinals for the third time over the last four Grand Slams.
Sharapova, meanwhile, made the semifinals at Roland Garros for the third time. She lost at that stage last year and in 2007.
“I love coming back here, love challenging myself to get further every year and I hope this is this year,” she said.
If she wins the tournament, she’ll add the French Open title to her championships at Wimbledon in 2004, the US Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008. If she makes the final, she is projected to move to No. 1 in the rankings.
Either way, Sharapova will always have a soft spot in her heart for Paris - a city where she figures she could easily fit in.
Sharapova is 15-1 on clay this season with two championships, in Stuttgart and Rome. Sliding around on the saturated clay in Paris, she looked very comfortable against Kanepi, who made her fourth Grand Slam quarterfinal but never found her groove in this matchup.
Shvedova came into yesterday having already won the seven matches it takes to earn the title at Roland Garros. But three of hers came during qualifying. She was trying to become the first French Open qualifier to reach the semifinals and after breaking Kvitova twice to capture the first set, it looked doable.
But Kvitova turned more aggressive in the second and third sets, hitting 20 winners from the baseline to only nine for Svedova, and that helped turn the match.
“It wasn’t easy,” said Kvitova, who finished with five aces. “My serve helped me and I played my aggressive game.”