French Open: Sharapova, Azarenka enter semis

Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka set up a mouth-watering French Open semi-final on Wednesday with hard-fought wins in their quarter-finals. The defending champion Russian, seeded second this year, survived a nightmare start to hold on to her crown for at least another day with a 0-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over tough Jelena Jankovic in a compelling quarter-final tie. World number three Azarenka, meanwhile, reached her first semi-finalat Roland Garros when she defeated friend and former doubles partner, Maria Kirilenko of Russia, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2. Sharapova and Azarenka have played each other 12 times with the Belarusian 7-5 ahead, although it will be their first meeting this year. “She played such a great match from the beginning and was very aggressive,” Sharapova said of her opponent. “I knew after the first set that I had tochange things around. I just had to erase the chapter and move forward. I still felt I was in the match and I broke her in the first game (of the second). In what was a matchup of two former world number ones, Jankovic, who has clawed her way back into the world top 20 this year, got off to the prefect start with three straight breaks of serveto take the first set 6-0 in just 29 minutes. It was just the fourth time in her Grand Slam career that Sharapova had lost a set 6-0, but she could have no complaints, having committed 20 unforced errors to just two from Jankovic. Djokovic to face Nadal World number one Novak Djokovic reached his 12th consecutive Grand Slam semi-final when he defeated gutsy German Tommy Haas 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), 7-5. Djokovic, who needs a Roland Garros title to become just the eighth man to complete a career Grand Slam, will tackle defending champion Rafael Nadal for a place in Sunday’s final. Nadal reached the semi-finals with a 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 win over Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.