Schiavone living Paris dream again

Francesca Schiavone credited the inspirational power of the French Open after moving to within one victory of a second successive Roland Garros title.

The Italian gave a supreme display of clay-court tennis to beat Marion Bartoli 6-3 6-3 in the semi-finals this afternoon and will face Li Na on Saturday after the Chinese player saw off Maria Sharapova 6-4 7-5.

Schiavone’s victory over Samantha Stosur 12 months ago made her one of the more surprise grand slam winners, and this year’s run has also been somewhat unexpected because she has not reached another final in between.

The 30-year-old, who has now won 13 straight matches at Roland Garros, said: “When I was young, I always dreamed about this tournament, so it is coming from a long, long time ago. When I come here, I feel something special.”

Schiavone had lost 10 of the first 12 games in her last-eight clash against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova but she was switched on from the start today.

Bartoli had the support of the crowd but her opponent gradually wound things up and broke through in the eighth game before clinching the set in superb style.

Schiavone’s variety of spins and slices coupled with her clever placement caused Bartoli all sorts of problems and, although the Frenchwoman took an early lead in the second set, she was always under pressure and eventually that took its toll.

Bartoli, for whom this was a best run at a grand slam since her surprise appearance in the Wimbledon final in 2007, felt the windy conditions played into Schiavone’s hands.

She said: “I think I handled the pressure well but Francesca played extremely well with the conditions. It was extremely windy, and I think she used those conditions very well.

“She really played smart tennis, and at the end she was a bit too tough.”

The 26-year-old is now hoping she can build on her success here, saying: “I need to use this loss to learn lessons and improve even more. I have to work on parts of my game that can be improved.

“I can’t just be satisfied with this. I think the fact that I went one step further here will help me. Maybe not this year but I hope next year.”

Earlier, Li claimed her biggest scalp yet to reach a second consecutive grand slam final, but she certainly had some help from Sharapova, who served 10 double-faults, including one on match point.

The Chinese player, who lost to Kim Clijsters at the Australian Open, took an early 3-0 lead and, although Sharapova pegged her back, she always looked vulnerable on her own delivery in windy conditions.

The Russian made the better start to the second set and held onto her break until the eighth game but her service troubles ensured Li was always in contention, and the final act came as a surprise to no one.

Sharapova admitted today had not been her best performance but did not blame the wind, saying only: “It’s tough for me, it’s tough for her.

“She played a very good match. She certainly played a lot better than I did and a lot more solid. She played the crucial points better.

“At times I didn’t serve well and was rushing more than I had to. Considering the conditions, maybe I was just trying to go for too big second serves especially.”

Victory today would have given Sharapova a great chance of completing a career grand slam but, after making the last four of a major for the first time since 2008, she had plenty of positives to reflect on.

The 24-year-old said: “This was a great result for me here. It’s been a good season on clay. I had a great tournament (winning) in Rome, and I got to the semi-finals here after not being at this stage of a grand slam for a long time.”

Li, who admitted on court she was hoping for a Sharapova double-fault on match point, said: “It’s always tough against Maria. She always fights for every point. So, even though I had match point, I didn’t know if I could win the match or not.

“I’m excited. This is my first time in the final so I just need to take one more step and then my dream will come true.”