Stephens, Halep to meet for French Open title

   This one was more competitive.

   But not much.

   In a rematch of last year's U.S. Open final, Sloane Stephens beat fellow American and close friend Madison Keys 6-4, 6-4 in 78 minutes today to reach her first French Open final. 

   Stephens, a 25-year-old Fresno product seeded 10th, served for the second set at 5-2 in the first all-American women's semifinal at Roland Garros since Serena Williams defeated Jennifer Capriati in 2002.
   Stephens will face top-ranked Simona Halep, who outclassed third seed and 2016 champion Garbine Muguruza 6-1, 6-4. Muguruza would have replaced Halep at No. 1 with a victory.
   In only her fifth tournament since undergoing foot surgery, Stephens trounced Keys 6-3, 6-0 to win the U.S. Open last September in the first Grand Slam final for both players. Keys, 23, has yet to win a set against Stephens in three career matches.

   Stephens, who's 6-0 in tour-level finals, will attempt to become the first U.S. woman other than Williams to win the French Open since Capriati in 2001. Regardless of the outcome Saturday (6 a.m. PDT on NBC), Stephens will rise to at least a career-high No. 4 on Monday and become the first American woman in the top five other than Venus or Serena Williams since Lindsay Davenport in 2006.
   Halep, meanwhile, will try to avenge a heartbreaking loss in last year's final at Roland Garros. The Romanian led Jelena Ostapenko by a set and 3-0 with three break points for 4-0 before losing to the 20-year-old upstart, who had never won a tour-level title.
   Halep is 0-3 in Grand Slam singles finals. She also lost to Maria Sharapova in the 2014 French Open and to Caroline Wozniacki in this year's Australian Open, both times 6-4 in the third set.
   Halep is 5-2 (2-0 on clay) against Stephens, including a 6-4, 6-3 victory in the fourth round of the 2014 French Open.
   In the completion of two men's quarterfinals suspended by rain on Tuesday, No. 1 seed and 10-time champion Rafael Nadal beat No. 11 Diego Schwartzman 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, and No. 5 Juan Martin Del Potro topped No. 3 Marin Cilic 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 in a matchup of former U.S. Open champions.
   Del Potro, who almost quit tennis after undergoing four wrist operations in recent years, reached his first French Open semifinal in nine years.
   In Friday's semifinals, No. 7 seed Dominic Thiem of Austria is scheduled to meet unseeded Marco Cecchinato of Italy at 4 a.m. PDT, followed by Nadal vs. Del Potro not before 6:30 a.m. Coverage begins at 3 a.m. on Tennis Channel and continues at 8 a.m. on NBC and NBCSN. Tennis Channel will replay the men's semis beginning at 11 a.m.
   Nadal, who turned 32 on Sunday, is 9-5 (3-0 on clay, including a walkover) against Del Potro, who will turn 30 in September.
   Thiem, 24, and Cecchinato, 25, have split two career matches, both on hard courts and most recently in 2014.
   Thiem seeks his first berth in a Grand Slam final in his third consecutive French Open semifinal. Cecchinato, ranked 72nd, was 0-4 in the main draw of Grand Slam tournaments before this year's French Open. He received an 18-month suspension in 2016 for match fixing that was overturned on appeal.
   In today's mixed doubles final, No. 2 seeds Latisha (formerly Yung-jan) Chan of Taiwan and Ivan Dodig of Croatia edged No. 1 Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Mate Pavic of Croatia 6-1, 6-7 (5) [10-8].

Muguruza routs Sharapova; Halep advances

   Garbine Muguruza is making a strong case to win her second French Open singles title.
   Maria Sharapova, meanwhile, took a step back in her comeback from a 15-month doping suspension.
   In a surprisingly one-sided match, the third-seeded Muguruza dominated the 28th-seeded Sharapova 6-2, 6-1 in 70 minutes today to reach the semifinals in Paris.
   Both players drilled 10 winners, but Sharapova committed 27 unforced errors to Muguruza's 15.
   Muguruza, 24, has not lost a set in her five matches at Roland Garros. Sharapova, 31, returned from her suspension in April 2017 and withdrew from Miami in March with a left forearm injury.
   Sharapova played at Roland Garros this year for the first time since reaching the fourth round in 2015. She won the title in 2012 and 2014.
   Muguruza, who captured the first of her two Grand Slam singles titles in the 2016 French Open, is scheduled to play top-ranked Simona Halep on Thursday not before 6 a.m. PDT (Tennis Channel). Muguruza can return to No. 1 with a victory.
   Halep, who lost to upstart Jelena Ostapenko in last year's final after leading by a set and 3-0, beat 12th-seeded Angelique Kerber, who won the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-2.
   Muguruza is 4-1 against Halep, including a victory by walkover in the Doha semifinals in February. But Halep won their only meeting on clay, in the second round at Stuttgart in 2015.
   Following that match, Americans and close friends Sloane Stephens, seeded 10th, and Madison Keys, seeded 13th, will meet (Tennis Channel) in a rematch of last year's U.S. Open final, won by Stephens 6-3, 6-0. Stephens, 25, has not lost a set in two career matches, both on hard courts, against Keys, 23.
   Keys and Sharapova have entered the inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, July 30-Aug. 5 at San Jose State. The tournament replaces the Bank of the West Classic, which Keys won last August, after 21 years at Stanford.
   The last two French Open men's quarterfinals were suspended by rain and are scheduled to resume on Thursday at 3 a.m. PDT (Tennis Channel).
   No. 11 seed Diego Schwartzman leads No. 1 and 10-time champion Rafael Nadal 6-4, 3-5. The match between former U.S. Open champions Marin Cilic, seeded No. 3, and Juan Martin Del Potro, seeded No. 5, is tied 6-6 (5-5).
   Schwartzman, 25, of Argentina ended Nadal's French Open winning streak at 37 sets. Nadal had both of his wrists taped during the match.
   In the women's doubles quarterfinals, unseeded Eri Hozumi and Makoto Ninomiya of Japan shocked top-seeded Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France 7-6 (4), 6-3.
   Mladenovic and countrywoman Caroline Garcia won the 2016 French Open.

Stephens, Keys to meet in rematch; Italian stuns Djoker

   A U.S. woman other than Serena or Venus Williams will play in the French Open final for the first time in 17 years.

   And an Italian man will play in a Grand Slam semifinal for the first time in 40 years. 

   Americans Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys are scheduled to meet in Thursday's semis in a rematch of last year's U.S. Open final, won by Stephens 6-3, 6-0.

   Marco Cecchinato, who had been 0-4 in the main draw of Grand Slam tournaments before the French Open, became the first Italian man to reach a major semifinal since Corrado Barazzutti at Roland Garros in 1978.   

   The 10th-seeded Stephens, who grew up in Fresno, dismissed 14th-seeded Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-3, 6-1. Kasatkina, 21, had completed a 7-6 (5), 6-3 victory over second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki on Monday in a match suspended by darkness on Sunday.
   Keys, seeded 13th, beat unseeded Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 7-6 (5), 6-4.
   Stephens has not lost a set in two career matches, both on hard courts, against her best friend on the tour, Keys.
   On the men's side, the unseeded Cecchinato eliminated 10th seed and 2016 champion Novak Djokovic 6-3, 7-6 (4), 1-6, 7-6 (11). Djokovic squandered three set points in the second set, a 5-2 lead in the fourth set and three set points in the fourth-set tiebreaker.

   At No. 72, Cecchinato also became the lowest-ranked French Open men's semifinalist since No. 100 Andrei Medvedev of Ukraine in 1999.

   Cecchinato will face seventh-seeded Dominic Thiem for the first time on Friday. Thiem, a 24-year-old Austrian, dominated second-seeded Alexander Zverev 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 to reach his third consecutive French Open semifinal. Thiem seeks his first berth in a Grand Slam final.

   The other men's and women's semifinal matchups will be determined on Wednesday (Tennis Channel).

   On Court Philippe-Chatrier, No. 3 seed Garbine Muguruza will face No. 28 Maria Sharapova at 5 a.m. PDT in a clash of former French Open champions, followed by No. 1 Rafael Nadal against No. 11 Diego Schwartzman of Argentina. 

   On Court Suzanne-Lenglen, No. 1 Simona Halep will meet No. 12 Angelique Kerber at 5 a.m., followed by No. 3 Marin Cilic versus No. 6 Juan Martin Del Potro.
   Keys, who won the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford last August, and Sharapova, the 2010 runner-up at Stanford, are scheduled to play in the inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, July 30-Aug. 5 at San Jose State.
   In the first round of boys doubles today, Joao Lucas Reis Da Silva and Gilbert Soares Klier Junior of Brazil topped Adrian Andreev of Bulgaria and Keenan Mayo of Roseville in the Sacramento area 6-2, 3-6, 10-6.
   Mayo, 18, has signed a letter-of-intent to attend the University of Illinois.

Serena withdraws from showdown vs. Sharapova

   Past French Open champions Maria Sharapova and Garbine Muguruza needed two games combined today to reach the quarterfinals in Paris.
   Unseeded Serena Williams, who has won Roland Garros three times, withdrew from her match against No. 28 seed Sharapova with a chest muscle injury. Later, unseeded Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine retired because of a leg injury with No. 3 seed Muguruza leading 2-0.
   Williams had been 19-2 with an 18-match winning streak against Sharapova. Off the court, the players have feuded over the years. On Saturday, Williams criticized Sharapova's 2017 autobiography as "hearsay."
   Williams, who had a baby last September, was playing in her first tournament since March and her first Grand Slam tournament since winning the 2017 Australian Open.
   Sharapova advanced to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal since losing to Williams at that stage in the 2016 Australian Open. That was Sharapova's last appearance before serving a 15-month doping suspension.
   Both Williams and Sharapova are scheduled to play in the inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, July 30-Aug. 5 at San Jose State. The tournament replaces the Bank of the West Classic, which had been held at Stanford for 21 years.
   In the French Open women's quarterfinals, No. 1 seed Simona Halep will face No. 12 Angelique Kerber, Muguruza will meet Sharapova, No. 13 Madison Keys will play unseeded Yulia Putintseva, and No. 10 Sloane Stephens will take on No. 14 Daria Kasatkina.
   Stephens, a 25-year-old Fresno product now living in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Kasatkina, a 21-year-old Russian, will meet after the 5 a.m. PDT match between No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev and No. 7 Dominic Thiem. Tennis Channel will televise the matches.
   Kasatkina ousted No. 2 seed Caroline Wozniacki, coming off her first Grand Slam title in the Australian Open, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the completion of a match suspended by darkness on Sunday. Stephens, the reigning U.S. Open champion, is 1-1 (1-0 on clay) against Kasatkina.
   In the other men's quarterfinals, No. 1 seed Rafael Nadal will meet No. 11 Diego Schwartzman, No. 3 Marin Cilic will take on No. 5 Juan Martin Del Potro, and No. 20 Novak Djokovic will play unseeded Marco Cecchinato.
   Meanwhile, Katie Volynets of Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area lost twice to seeded Yuki Naito of Japan in junior matches.
   The 16-year-old Volynets, a U.S. Open girls quarterfinalist last year, fell 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to No. 10 seed Naito, 17, in the second round and with Natasha Subhash of Fairfax, Va., 6-2, 6-2 to No. 3 Naito and Naho Sato in the first round.

Stephens rolls into first French Open quarterfinal

   No. 10 seed Sloane Stephens crushed No. 25 Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 6-2, 6-0 in 52 minutes today to reach the French Open quarterfinals for the first time.
   Stephens, a 25-year-old Fresno product now based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., now has reached at least the quarterfinals of all four Grand Slam tournaments.
   "A lot of girls dream of making quarters or semis, and now that I've done that at all four Slams, that's pretty awesome," Stephens, the reigning U.S. Open champion, told Tennis Channel. "That was definitely a goal, and I'm glad to finally make it through to the quarterfinals here."
   Stephens is scheduled to play either No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark or No. 14 Daria Kasatkina of Russia on Tuesday. Kasatkina, 21, led 7-6 (5), 3-3 when the match was suspended by darkness.
   Stephens is 1-1 (1-0 on clay) against Kasatkina and 1-6 (0-0 on clay) against Wozniacki.
   Stephens could meet close friend and fellow Floridian Madison Keys, seeded 13th, in the semifinals in a rematch of last year's U.S. Open final. Keys, who won the final edition of the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford last August, will meet unseeded Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan.
   In the men's draw, Marco Cecchinato of Italy surprised No. 8 seed David Goffin of Belgium 7-5, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals.
   Cecchinato, ranked 72nd, had been 0-4 in the main draw of Grand Slam tournaments. He will face No. 20 seed Novak Djokovic, the 2016 French Open champion.
   No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany topped unseeded Karen Khachanov of Russia 4-6, 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 to reach his first Grand Slam quarterfinal.
   The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Zverev, 21, has played three consecutive five-set matches. He will take on No. 7 Dominic Thiem of Austria.
   In the third round of women's doubles, No. 3 seeds Andreja Klepac of Slovenia and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain eliminated unseeded Serena Williams and Venus Williams 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-0. Serena Williams is entered in the inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, July 30-Aug. 5 at San Jose State.
  In the first round of girls singles, 16-year-old Katie Volynets of Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area dispatched wild card Yasmine Mansouri of France 6-2, 6-3.
   Volynets, a U.S. Open girls quarterfinalist last year, will take on No. 10 seed Yuki Naito of Japan. Naito beat Margaryta Bilokin of Ukraine 6-2, 7-6 (8).

No. 10 Stephens survives major test in French Open

   Sloane Stephens breezed through her first two matches in the French Open.
   Not so in the third round.
   The 10th-seeded Stephens, who grew up in Fresno, outlasted Camila Giorgi of Italy 4-6, 6-1, 8-6 today in Paris. Stephens trailed by a service break three times in the third set of the 2-hour, 26-minute thriller.
   "She plays kind of crazy, but in a good way," Stephens, 25, told reporters. "She hits a lot of winners and plays very unpredictable, so it's hard to get a rhythm. I knew it was going to be a battle, and I just stuck in there and waited for my opportunities and took advantage of them when I could." 
   Stephens avenged a 6-3, 6-0 loss to Giorgi in the first round at Sydney in January. The rout came during Stephens' eight-match losing streak that followed her first Grand Slam title in the U.S. Open.
   Stephens reached the fourth round of the French Open for the fifth time. Either she or 25th-seeded Anett Kontaveit of Estonia will advance to the quarterfinals at Roland Garros for the first time when they meet for the first time Sunday between 7 and 9 a.m. PDT at 14,840-seat Court Philippe-Chatrier. Tennis Channel or NBC will televise the match.
   Kontaveit, 22, upset eighth-seeded Petra Kvitova 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4).
   Unseeded Serena Williams dispatched No. 11 seed Julia Goerges of Germany 6-3, 6-4 to set up a "showdown" against No. 28 Maria Sharapova, who demolished No. 6 Karolina Pliskova 6-2, 6-1 in 59 minutes.
   Williams is 19-2 against Sharapova with 18 consecutive victories. They will meet for the first time since Williams' 6-4, 6-1 victory in the quarterfinals of the 2016 Australian Open.
   Both Williams (maternity leave) and Sharapova (drug suspension) are multiple French Open champions trying to regain their form. And both are scheduled to play in the inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, July 30-Aug. 5 at San Jose State.
   No. 1 seeds Simona Halep and Rafael Nadal won in straight sets, as did No. 3 Marin Cilic and No. 5 Juan Martin del Potro.
   In men's doubles, No. 13 seeds Rohan Bopanna of India and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France ousted No. 1 Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Marcelo Melo of Brazil 6-4, 7-6 (1) to reach the quarterfinals. Roger-Vasselin and Melo won the French Open men's doubles title in 2014 and 2015, respectively, with different partners.
   In the second round of women's doubles, Eri Hozumi and Makoto Ninomiya of Japan surprised No. 11 seeds Raquel Atawo of Sacramento and Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 2-6, 6-2, 6-0.

Buzarnescu creates buzz with French Open upset

   No. 31 seed Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania shocked No. 4 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-3, 7-5 today to reach the round of 16 in the French Open.
   Buzarnescu, ranked No. 377 a year ago because of injuries, recorded her first victory over a top-five player.
   The 30-year-old left-hander is playing in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament for only the second time. She lost to Caroline Wozniacki in the first round of last year's U.S. Open.
   Svitolina reached the French Open quarterfinals in 2015 and last year.
   Buzarnescu next will play No. 13 seed Madison Keys, who topped No. 21 Naomi Osaka of Japan 6-1, 7-6 (7). Keys won last summer's Bank of the West Classic at Stanford and advanced to the U.S. Open final, in which she lost to Sloane Stephens.
   Today's scheduled match between the 10th-seeded Stephens, who grew up in Fresno, and Camila Giorgi of Italy was postponed by rain. They are scheduled to play on Saturday at 2 a.m. PDT (Tennis Channel).
   In the first round of mixed doubles, second-seeded Latisha (formerly Yung-Jan) Chan of Taiwan and Ivan Dodig of Croatia beat Makoto Ninomiya and ex-Cal star Ben McLachlan of Japan 7-5, 6-3.