Defending champion, Serena Williams reached the semifinals of the French Open after a tense quarterfinal match. Now she will face the surprise of the tournament, Kiki Bertens. Serena Williams is on the quest of getting her 22nd Grand Slam title, whilst Bertens is aiming to make a bigger surprise and reach her first Grand Slam final.
Road to the Semifinal
Williams started the tournament with a solid win against Magdalena Rybarikova. The top seed got her pass to the second round defeating Teliana Pereira. Williams will face her first seed in the third round, Kristina Mladenovic. This time not only she was playing the twenty-six seed, but the crowd as well, since Mladenovic was one of the remaining French. It was a tough match for the world number one, the Frenchwoman played one of the best matches in her life and forced the top seed to a tiebreak in the second. In the fourth round, Williams beat Elina Svitolina without complications.
In her quarterfinal match, Serena Williams faced her toughest opponent so far. A match where Williams threw away many chances and made many unforced errors. Yulia Putintseva made her her debut at a Grand Slam quarterfinal and didn’t look bad at all, taking one set from Williams who eventually came back to take the match.
Kiki Bertens came to the French Open as an unseeded player, from the start it clear that Bertens was not the favorite to win her first round match. She stunned the reigning Australian Open champion, Angelique Kerber in three sets. In the second round, she faced another tough opponent, the always challenging, Camila Giorgi but she overpowered the Italian in straight sets. Then she will face her toughest test yet, a young Russian player named Daria Kasatkina who pushed Bertens to the limit in a long third set. The American, Madison Keys was next. Keys was a player who had experienced this stage of a major having reached the quarterfinal at Wimbledon and semifinal at the Australian Open. But the Dutch proved to be too strong and beat her in straight sets.
Bertens had beat three seeded players and now she had to face another player in the top ten, Timea Bacsinszky. The Swiss had been a semifinalist at the French Open last year and wanted to make it to her second Grand Slam semifinal but Bertens didn’t allow it, taking the victory in straight sets and setting up a meeting with the world number one, Serena Williams.
Head-to-Head
This will be the second meeting between Bertens and Williams, the first one also happened at a major last year. Williams defeated Bertens in straight sets in the second round of the US Open.
Match Analysis
There’s no doubt that the absolute favorite here is Serena Williams, not only because of her experience and career, but experience could be the major factor in here. Williams is more than accustomed being at this stage of a Grand Slam, while Bertens will have to beat the nerves of being at her first semifinal of a major. This doesn’t mean that everything is lost for the Dutch if she remains calm and manages to outplay Williams she could make this match a nightmare for the American who has been denied her 22nd Grand Slam title.
Bertens is an aggressive baseliner, but she will need more than powerful groundstrokes if she wants to beat Williams. The key to beat the American could be in getting her out of her comfort zone, the baseline. Williams likes to dictate the points and when she is not doing that she can find herself in a lot of trouble. The top seed can be a ‘high risk’ player, hitting the ball sometimes too hard which causes unforced errors, but she balances this with her powerful serve.
This year is a lot different for Bertens, she is not the same player she was last year in their only meeting. Bertens’ confidence could be a huge factor in the match, right now, the Dutch believes she can beat anyone and the thought of reaching her first Grand Slam final could be a strong stimulus. Still, it depends on what kind of Serena Williams will play tomorrow, the solid and consistent player from the first rounds or the erratic and anxious that played in her last match?
Prediction: Serena Williams in three sets.
