(REUTERS) – Fifth seed Francesca Schiavone remains on course to defend her French Open title after a 6-3, 6-3 win over Marion Bartoli in the semi-finals at Roland Garros yesterday. Schiavone, who has not reached a final since winning her maiden Grand Slam in Paris last year, outhit the home favourite Bartoli throughout the match and booked her place in the final after 90 minutes.
“It means that years can help a lot, the experience. Some years ago the champions were always young players. Now it is changing,” Schiavone said. “It’s like wine. The more it stays in the bottle, it’s much better.
“The crowd today was fantastic with Marion, they supported her from the first point to the end so it’s great to have 15 000 persons with you but I have to say thanks to my 50 or 100 fans who came today.”
The Italian will face Chinese sixth seed Li Na in the final, after the sixth seed beat Maria Sharapova 6-4, 7-5 in the first of the semi-finals earlier in the day.
“I think she played an amazing year starting in the Australian Open final and she is a great person. It will be tough but this is tennis, someone has to lose,” said Schiavone.
Despite the gusty conditions and the occasion, both players came out firing on all cylinders, hitting through the ball and finding winners from all areas of the court.
There was very little to choose between the two in the early stages of the match, although Bartoli looked marginally the more comfortable on serve as she dropped just one point in her first three games.
Schiavone, who stunned everyone when she stormed through the field in 2010 to win her maiden French Open aged 29, made light of the partisan support, playfully shrugging to the crowd when they booed her for challenging a call.
And it was the Italian who went on to eke out a narrow lead when she broke in the eighth game, putting pressure on the Bartoli serve for the first time with a series of brutal ground-strokes before finding a forehand return-of-serve winner to secure the break.
The Italian easily served out the set in the next game, again making her weight of shot tell, when Bartoli hit long off a net cord from Schiavone.