French Open results 2015: Lucie Safarova beats Ana Ivanovic, advances to final

One half of the women’s final at the 2015 French Open is set, as No. 13 seed Lucie Safarova took down No. 7 seed Ana Ivanovic, 7-5, 7-5. Safarova, who also eliminated No. 2 seed Maria Sharapova back in the fourth round, advances to her first ever Grand Slam final.

Ivanovic’s forehand was the big difference maker early on, but Safarova held out and wound up taking control. After holding in the match’s opening set, Ivanovic scored an early break point primarily on the back of her strong forehand, taking a 2-0 lead in the early-going of the match. She didn’t have as easy a time breaking Safarova the next time she had an opportunity, but she was already up 4-1 at the time, so there was plenty of room to get things done in the opening set.

Safarova continued to show well in her next service game, and then managed to break Ivanovic for the first time to get back on serve at 5-4. Miraculously, she then went on break Ivanovic again and wound up serving for the set at 6-5. What followed was a dominant service game in which she had a triple set point, which she buried home to take the opening set.

Safarova kept the pressure on from there, going up a break on Ivanovic in the second set. Ivanovic came very close to evening things out when Safarova held a 3-2 lead by getting a break point attempt, but Safarova fought it off to remain up a break. She wound up serving for the match at 5-4, but after a double fault and a strong return from Ivanovic, was down 0-30. Eventually, the game got to deuce and things were very tense as Ivanovic threatened a break multiple times. It’s hard to say whether or not the pressure got to Safarova or not, but Ivanovic eventually broke her to make it 5-5.

Naturally, things stayed just as unpredictable from there, with Safarova scoring a dominant break over Ivanovic to set up yet another potential match-winning service game. This service game did wind up winning Safarova the match and pushing her through to the final.

Safarova will go on to face the winner of Thursday’s other semifinal matchup between top seed Serena Williams and No. 23 seed Timea Bacsinszky. The final is set for Saturday, June 6.

The men’s semifinals will get underway on Friday. Those semifinals will feature top seed Novak Djokovic going up against No. 3 seed Andy Murray, and No. 8 seed Stan Wawrinka playing the lone Frenchman remaining in the tournament, No. 14 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The final will be on Sunday, June 7.

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