Marion Bartoli became the first Frenchwoman since 2005 to reach the Roland Garros semi-finals on Tuesday when she defeated 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6 (7/4), 6-4. Bartoli, the 11th seed, will tackle defending champion Francesca Schiavone, who earlier beat Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in three sets, for a place in Saturday's final.
The 26-year-old is only the fourth French player to reach the women's semi-finals in the Open era and the first since Mary Pierce six years ago. "Thanks to the fans and to my father (Walter, her coach). We won it together," said Bartoli.
"I prepared well for this match with my dad. I am very happy and proud." Bartoli said she was looking forward to facing Schiavone, when a win would put her just one step from following Pierce, the champion in 2000, as a home-grown Roland Garros winner.
"I will go onto the court with the same attitude, I will think only of winning," she said. "With the crowd behind me, I can't see how I am not going to be able to win."
Kuznetsova admitted she had played one of the worst matches of her Grand Slam career.
"I served badly, she put the pressure on. She also had all the luck, she hit the lines while I was missing by three millimetres. But I played so bad. It was worse than the most horrible dream." An untidy first set, which featured seven breaks of serve in 13 games, was predictably settled by a tie-break. Bartoli, an emotional jumping jack of nervous energy, clinched it when Kuznetsova, the Russian 13th seed, misdirected a forehand off a deep approach.
The 26-year-old Frenchwoman, a Wimbledon runner-up in 2007, was a break ahead in the opening game of the second set and backed it up with another break to lead 5-2. But the experienced Russian clawed a break back in the eighth game as Bartoli served for the match.
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