Paris: Top seed and world number one Simona Halep defeated Angelique Kerber 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, 6-2 to reach her third French Open semi-final on Wednesday.

Top seed Simona Halep fought back to triumph in a bruising French Open quarter-final battle against Germany’s Angelique Kerber and stand two wins away from her first Grand Slam title.

Halep had arrived in Paris on a hot streak, reaching at least the quarter-finals in her last nine clay-court tournaments and losing only one set on her way to facing Kerber in Paris.

But it was the German who started the stronger, out-hitting her rival, and with lethal accuracy, to win the first four games as Halep struggled to find her serving rhythm and peppered the tramlines with unforced errors.

Kerber eventually prevailed in a tiebreak, but Halep came out all guns blazing in the second, firing baseline bullets at her opponent, who tried to cling on against the onslaught.

But by the third set Halep had broken the German’s defences as she banged in 76 percent of her first serves, with only half the unforced errors of her opponent.

Sharapova beaten

Garbine Muguruza thrashed Maria Sharapova 6-2, 6-1 to reach the French Open semi-finals on Wednesday, condemning the Russian to her worst Grand Slam defeat in more than six years.

Today’s matches

Women’s Singles Semi-finals: 1 S. Halep Vs 3 G. Muguruza at 6.30 pm (IST);  13 M. Keys Vs 10 S. Stephens at 7.45 pm (IST).