Italian Francesca Schiavone fell to the ground and planted a kiss on the clay of Roland Garros after reaching the first Grand Slam semifinal of her career on Tuesday.
The veteran booked her passage into the final four as she upset third seed Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 6-3 in a command performance on another chilly day in Paris with rain threatening.
“The emotion is biggest pleasure,” said the emotional winner.
“When you work hard every morning, every afternoon of your life, and a good result arrives ... Now I want to enjoy. For me, it’s great — it’s really something special,” she said.
The three-time quarterfinalist at the majors will play to become the first Italian woman in a Grand Slam final as she faces fifth seed Elena Dementieva, who rallied to beat Russian compatriot Nadia Petrova 2-6, 6-2, 6-0.
At 19, Wozniacki was the youngest player remaining in the draw while Schiavone was the oldest at 29. The Italian broke on six of her eight chances in the straightforward victory.
“She played well, with a lot of spin and didn’t make a lot of mistakes,” said the Danish loser. “She was playing better than me today. I was always one step behind and couldn’t really dominate the way I wanted to.”
