Iga Swiatek is into her third Roland Garros final after defeating Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-2 7-6(7).
The defending champion is into a third Roland Garros final after overcoming a strong second set performance from Haddad Maia.
As a result of the win Swiatek will keep her world number one ranking on Monday.
Swiatek will play Karolina Muchova in the final who defeated Aryna Sabalenka in three hours.
The Pole had an early deficit to overcome after conceding the break in the opening game with Haddad Maia starting the match in aggressive fashion.
Swiatek quickly responded with some vicious forehands of her own as she broke back for 1-1.
The Brazilian wasn’t afraid to implement her own game onto Philiipe-Chatrier as she had her own history to play for.
However Swiatek’s returning quality and pressure told eventually with the Pole proving too clinical for Haddad Maia.
Converting her other two break points, Swiatek wrapped up the opening set in 41 minutes by winning the last four games.
In the second set Swiatek made a few sloppy unforced errors as Haddad Maia continued to implement her aggressive returning game.
After failing to break in the opening game, Haddad Maia continued to lug away and was rewarded for her aggression with a break in the third game to take a 2-1 lead.
Haddad Maia’s consistency off the backhand side was causing Swiatek problems but the top seed bounced back in the sixth game to level the set at 3-3.
Despite Swiatek’s returning quality, it was the Brazilian who applied the most pressure on return creating four break points.
However the Brazilian couldn’t translate her advantage to the scoreboard as the second set went to a tiebreak.
Swiatek came back from 5-3 and set point down to edge towards victory and being one step away from the title.
After the match Swiatek said she is excited for Saturday’s final, “It’s really amazing,” the Pole was quoted as saying by the BBC.
“Honestly It’s tough to play such a long tournament and I’m pretty happy I am able to play consistently and every year have a good result here, and I am pretty excited for Saturday. We’ll see how it’s going to go.”
Swiatek will now play Muchova for the title with the head-to-head record at 1-0 to Muchova.
