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Fourth seed Garbine Muguruza has advanced to her first ever French Open final with a dominant straight sets win over Australian Samantha Stosur who fought hard, but simply couldn’t match the power of the Spaniard.
Muguruza came firing out of the gates and never looked back, apart from when a few nerves hit her in the back end of the second set. However, her serve came good for her and she won the last three points to serve out the match, with a pair of aces during what turned out to be the final game.
Stosur was blown off the court early on, but fought hard during the second set bouncing back from a break down twice to stay in the match.
The writing may well have been on the wall at the end of the first set though, with Muguruza up 5-1 at one point, dominating with her serve, and having found her range on both the forehand and backhand early on.
She was able to get Stosur behind the baseline more often than not, and the power and ferocity she attacked with meant Stosur was never winning from that possession.
From the position of 5-1 down in the first set though, Stosur started to show some signs of life winning one more game before being served out of the first set.
It was back to being blown off the court though for Stosur as she quickly went down 2-0 in the second set, being broken at her first service game by a fired up Muguruza.
Stosur would level the set at 2-2, finally managing to hang onto a break point with some ripping forehands from the baseline, and looking to attack the net whenever she got the opportunity.
Muguruza would then break twice more, going up 5-2 in the second set, but nerves would strike as Stosur won the next two games including another break.
The Australian took the first point of what proved to be the final game, but Muguruza’s serve finally returned to the party with a pair of aces leving Stosur defenceless.
The fourth seed has undoubtedly proven herself as a contender for the crown today, and will go onto face Serena Williams tomorrow in the final who managed to defeat Kiki Bertens on centre court 7-6, 6-4.
Final Score
Garbine Muguruza 6 6
Samantha Stosur 2 4
Samantha Stosur is looking to advance to her second French Open final when she takes on fourth seed Garbine Muguruza. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 9pm (AEST).
After worrying form during the lead-up, and her general struggles in grand slams over the last five years, it has been a surprise to see Stosur not only advance to the semi-finals, but get there in dominant style.
Up against a fairly tough draw, with the non-seeded players she has faced being either in red-hot form or being capable of turning on a show at any given moment, the Aussie has lost only two sets in five matches.
Having been runner-up at the second grand slam of the year once before, Stosur knows what it takes to win this match. She has been in fine form too, especially in the last two rounds as she dismantled Simona Halep and then Tsvetana Pironkova, both in straight sets.
Muguruza too had poor lead-up form, but has turned it around to not lose a set since her first of the tournament, against Anna Schmiedlova.
Not having a real battle could come back to haunt the number four seed though, with Stosur having to prove her form against the likes of Lucie Safarova and Halep.
The pair have previously faced off once, on clay in Madrid, although the match came back in 2014 meaning Muguruza was a mere shadow of the player she is today. After Muguruza put up resistance to win the second set, Stosur came to the fore – winning the final set 6-1.
Stosur has been here before, and not just in Paris, while before this year Mugurza had never made it out of the quarters in Paris. Also, Stosur has been on the pro circuit for a decade longer than Muguruza.
Experience versus youth could well be a factor.
Prediction
Stosur has been in fantastic form over the last fortnight, while Muguruza hasn’t had the chance to prove her form against seeded players. The Australian should advance.
Stosur in three sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of this French Open semi-final from 9pm (AEST) and don’t forget to add your own comments in the section below.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde