Third seed Simona Halep looked to be on a fast track to defeat when the scoreboard showed 6-3 5-1 for fifth seed Elina Svitolina in their Roland Garros quarterfinal, but the Romanian resurrected from death by winning five consecutive games and then saving a match point to force the third set, in which she absolutely dominated, 3-6 7-6(6) 6-0.
Halep’s semifinal opponent will be second seed Karolina Pliskova, who eliminated seed No.28 Caroline Garcia 7-6(3) 6-4, the last French hope left in both the men’s and women’s singles draw. Pliskova reached her second Grand Slam semifinal out of the last three after edging a tense opening set in which Garcia recovered from 3-5, saved a set point and forced a tiebreak after an epic 11th game.