There will be no change at the top of the women’s rankings because of this French Open. Caroline Wozniacki is long gone from the singles draw and had the free time available to watch Barcelona and Manchester United play soccer in person on Saturday. No matter what happens over the next few days in Paris, Wozniacki will remain No. 1 through Wimbledon, an unsettling state of affairs for a game that lacks a women’s ruler for the moment.
But the title at Roland Garros remains there for the taking, and there is still a chance that it may be there for the defending. Francesca Schiavone has resumed winning and kissing the clay in Paris this year after becoming the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam singles title here last year.
Schiavone did not plant a kiss directly on the terre battue on Tuesday, settling instead for scooping up a handful of the crushed red brick that
passes for clay here and bringing it to her lips. But she had plenty to be thankful for after defeating the talented Russian 19-year-old Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarterfinals.
Pavlyuchenkova, a sturdy world traveler capable of generating great power off either wing, took the opening set in a hurry and then erased a 1-5 deficit in the third set to get back to 5-5. Schiavone finally closed out her 1-6, 7-5, 7-5 victory on her third match point by hitting a winner with the flamboyant one-handed backhand that remains her signature shot.
At age 30, Schiavone is now just two victories from a second Grand Slam singles title, and she will face the winner of Tuesday’s second quarterfinal between Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia and Marion Bartoli of France.
nytimes
