Semifinalists unveiled for French Open

ANKARA 

Two single's female tennis players, Germany's Andrea Petkovic, 28th in WTA rankings, and Romania's Simona Halep, ranked fourth, have reached the semifinal stage of the French Open (Roland Garros) for the first time in their careers.

Due to rain, the quarter final competitions started two and half hours late on Wednesday.

In the women's match, 2012's runner-up Italian Sara Errani - ranked tenth in the Women's Tennis Association rankings - met Petkovic, whose biggest success had been to play a quarter final in 2011. 

Petkovic dominated the first set and took the lead, 1-0.

In the second set, both athletes could not make a good start and in four games servers faced service breaks, 2-2.

Petkovic broke the resistance of her opponent after winning break point, 4-2. She then managed to topple Errani in the remaining two games and won the set 6-2 and the clash 2-0.

Meanwhile, Halep played against 2009's winner, Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova.

The Russian player dictated the tempo of the play in the first set. However, owing to simple mistakes, Halep broke three of Kuznetsova's serves and won the first set 6-2.

Encouraged, Halep won the serve game and increased the gap to 3-1 in the second set.

In the last game, Halep was in the driver's seat and managed to break the serve of Kuznetsova once again. 

The Romanian player managed to advance to her first Grand Slam semi finals although she made double faults three times in one game.

Men's single

In the men's singles, world number one Rafael Nadal from Spain defeated his fellow citizen David Ferrer ranked in fifth position, while Briton Andy Murray eliminated France's Gael Monfils.

Ferrer won the first set. However, Nadal manage to equalise levels by breaking the serves of his opponent in the second.

In the third set, Nadal made a flying start with 3-0, and won the match 3-1, advancing to the semis in Roland Garros for the ninth time.

Another quarter final clash was between Andy Murray and Gael Monfils.

Murray managed to win the first two sets 6-4 and 6-1, but Monfils won the third easily by 6-4 and the fourth by 6-1 thanks to the support of the crowd and a good comeback.

In the final set Murray defeated Monfils 6-0 in a very short time and won the match 3-2, qualifying for the semifinal phase for the second time in Roland Garros.

In the semifinal phase of the French Open, Murray takes on Nadal, who has been crowned champion for the last four years.

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