SPORT DADDY NEWS TENNIS
PARIS The Latest on the French Open (all times local):
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2:10 p.m.
Serena Williams fended off two set points and converted her second to take the opener 7-6 (7) against Kiki Bertens in their French Open semifinal.
The top-seeded Williams, aiming for a second consecutive title at Roland Garros and her 22nd Grand Slam championship overall, trailed for most of the set and got her only break when Bertens served for it at 5-4.
They played in chilly, cloudy conditions and in front of a mostly empty Court Philippe Chatrier.
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1:45 p.m.
Garbine Muguruza has raced to a first-set lead in her French Open semifinal against Samantha Stosur, who made an unsteady start strewn with errors.
Stosur served first, and was immediately under pressure. The fourth-seeded Muguruza hit a forehand smash at the net to earn two break points and converted the first to take a 1-0 lead.
The Spaniard then saved two break points on her serve and broke the 24th-seeded Australian again, when Stosur served a double fault - her second - at 15-40.
The set then stayed with serve to 5-2 for Muguruza.
She then served out the set, with a volleyed forehand winner bringing up set point and Stosur then hitting a backhand service return long, for a 6-2 first set in 34 minutes.
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1:30 p.m.
It's far from a full house for the start of the two women's semifinals being played, unusually, at the same time and on a Friday at the French Open, with many seats unfilled.
There are blocks of empty seats on the main Court Philippe Chatrier, where defending champion Serena Williams was broken in her first service game by the unseeded Kiki Bertens.
An effort to fill the adjacent Court Suzanne Lenglen, where Garbine Muguruza has jumped to a 4-0 first-set lead against Samantha Stosur, by offering 8,000 cheap 20-euro ($22) tickets appears to have met with limited success, with large areas of empty seats.
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1:20 p.m.
A day late, two women's semifinals are underway at the French Open, played simultaneously on separate courts to squeeze them in after a rain-wrecked week before the final on Saturday.
Had damp weather not thrown off the schedule, Serena Williams, Kiki Bertens, Garbine Muguruza and Samantha Stosur normally would have played their semifinals on Thursday, leaving the finalists a full day of rest before the championship match.
But unrelenting rain that washed out a whole day of play on Monday, for the first time in 16 years, and other wet-weather delays nixed those plans.
Instead of being played one after the other on the main Court Philippe Chatrier, they're now playing at the same time. Defending champion Williams is up against the unseeded Bertens on Chatrier, with fourth-seeded Muguruza and No. 24 Stosur next door on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
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