Serena Williams cruised past 2012 Roland Garros finalist Sara Errani 6-1 6-3 after 66 minutes to set up a semifinal match against Swiss Timea Bacsinszky. Diego Sampaolo
Williams had to dig deep in her previous three matches where she fought back from a set down. However, in this match, Williams hit 39 winners and committed 23 unforced errors to extend her winning streak against Errani to 9-0.
“I wasn’t able to serve well in my first couple of matches because I hurt my arm in Madrid. In my first few matches I thought I shouldn’t serve too big but I am now feeling a bit better. I haven’t had a great clay court season, so I am pretty excited to have gotten this far,” said Williams
Williams set up a semifinal match against Timea Bacsinszky who beat Alison Van Uytvanck. Williams leads 2-0 in her previous head-to-head match against Bacsinszky. They have already met this year at Indian Wells where Williams prevailed after a tight match in straight sets.
The 25-year-old Swiss has continued her fairytale this year after edging past Van Uytyanck 6-4 7-5. Bacsinszky pulled away to a 6-4 3-1lead but Van Uytvanck drew level to 3-3 to claw her way back into the match before catching up with the Swiss player in the 10th game to tie 5-5. Bacsinszky hit her down-the-line backhand winner to wrap up the match with 7-5 and become the first Swiss player to reach a Grand Slam semifinal since Patty Schnyder at the 2004 Australian Open and the first player from her country to reach this stage in Paris since Martina Hingis in 2001.
After picking up her first racquet at the age of 3, she was pushed hard to succeed by her father. After a promising junior career in which she reached the Australian Open Junior semifinal in 2004 and winning her first WTA title in Luxemburg, she suffered a serious foot injury. She left the tour and worked in a restaurant. In May 2013 she received an e-mail which stated that she had made the cut to compete in the qualifying tournament at the Roland Garros. She started her 2015 season with a final in Shenzhen and two back-to-back titles in Acapulco and Monterrey where she beat Caroline Garcia in both finals. She beat Ekaterina Makarova at Indian Wells to reach the quarterfinal where she lost to Serena Williams
“When you play against Serena, you should be able to compete with her. I gave her a hard time and I hope tomorrow I will do my best to try and beat her and win the set point”, said Bacsinszky.
