Finally Francesca: Schiavone Stops Caroline Wozniacki To Reach French Open Semifinals

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By Sean Rudolph
Photo Credit: Costantini/Internazionali BNL D'Italia

(June 1, 2010) Nine years removed from her last trip to the French Open quarterfinals, Francesca Schiavone wasn't willing to play the waiting game.

On a dreary, drizzly day, Schiavone fast forwarded her way into the French Open final four.

Deploying her first serve-and-volley attack of the match to reach match point, the 29-year-old Italian swatted an overhead winner into the corner to complete a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Caroline Wozniacki in today's French Open quarterfinals.

The 29-year-old from Milan bunny hopped around the court in celebration then dropped face first to the court and kissed the crushed red brick court as if embracing her piece of a personal promised land.

Schiavone has cause for celebration. She is the first Italian woman in the Open Era to reach a Grand Slam semifinal and will crack the WTA Tour top 10 for the first time when the new rankings are released on Monday.

"I always dream; my goal was, one of my goals, was this. But to arrive is different," Schiavone said. "To live every step before to arrive in semifinal is something. I don't know. I don't have many words to say, because is emotion, is feeling, is something that is coming from the heart. Anyway, I lived some good moment and some bad moment last year and some years ago. I think the bad moment help me a lot to grow up and to learn many things that today, when I was playing, I was thinking about this."

Contesting her 10th career French Open, the 17th-seeded Italian will take on fifth-seeded Elena Dementieva for a spot in Saturday's final. Dementieva overcame a slow start to capture 10 consecutive games in closing out a 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 victory over 19th-seeded Nadia Petrova, who was slowed by a leg injury. It is Dementieva's fifth major semifinal in her last eight Grand Slam tournament appearances. She reached the Australian Open and Wimbledon semifinals last season.

Dementieva, the 2004 Roland Garros runner-up to Anastasia Myskina, has won four of six meetings with Schiavone, including their lone clay-court clash which came five years ago in Fed Cup competition.

"(It) will be very interesting match. I know her. I think she know me," Schiavone said. "We grow up a little bit together. We played many tournaments together. I respect her. She's a great athlete. You know how she is, Elena. But will be good match. We are good athletes physically and mentally strong. I think who going to win really the best one Thursday."

The third-seeded Wozniacki was aiming to reach her second Grand Slam semifinal in her last three majors. She had survived a three-hour match in subduing Schiavone's Italian Fed Cup teammate, 14th-seeded Flavia Pennetta, 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 6-2 in a three-hour, fourth-round battle. Playing with her sprained right ankle taped, Wozniacki, who plays a counter-punching style anyway, was forced to play defense from the first ball by an aggressive Schiavone who masterfully mixed the spins and speeds of her shots to run the blond Dane.

"She played with a lot of spin. She didn't make a lot of mistakes," Wozniacki said. "She played aggressive. She was playing better than me today. I was always one step behind and couldn't really dominate the way I wanted to."