Flipkens reaches 1st Grand Slam semi at Wimbledon 

LONDON (AP) — Kirsten Flipkens put on a clinical performance to upset former champion Petra Kvitova 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 and reach the Wimbledon semifinals on Tuesday.

Featuring in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal, the bespectacled Flipkens played with real determination and made only five unforced errors. She fell face-first on the court and kissed the grass after closing out the match with an ace that was challenged by Kvitova.

Flipkens said "It's ridiculous! Last year I didn't even get into qualifying. To be a semi-finalist at Wimbledon, it cannot be better."

The No. 20 Flipkens will next play former runner-up Marion Bartoli.

Kvitova, who won the title at the All England Club two years ago, called for a medical timeout at 5-2 in the second set and had her temperature checked.

Marion Bartoli of France eliminated the last U.S. player at Wimbledon on Tuesday, reaching her third Grand Slam semifinal by beating Sloane Stephens 6-4, 7-5 in a rain-interrupted, break-filled match.

The 15th-seeded Bartoli, the 2007 runner-up at the All England Club, was leading 5-4 with Stephens serving at deuce when they resumed after a 2½-hour rain delay. Bartoli won the next two points, the latter a 27-stroke exchange, to take the opening set.

That began a stretch in which Bartoli broke Stephens five consecutive times, four at love. After Stephens broke to get within 5-4, then held to 5-all, Bartoli took the last two games, including yet another break at love to end the quarterfinal.

In Thursday's semifinals, Bartoli faces 20th-seeded Kirsten Flipkens, who defeated 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.