Simona Halep and Sloane Stephens both had strong showings in Thursday’s French Open semifinals
Halep succeeded in retaining her No.1 ranking by very convincingly defeating Muguruza, the Spaniard who entered the semifinals without dropping a set and who demolished Maria Sharapova in the quarters. After just over 20 minutes of play, the top-seeded Halep already enjoyed a 5-0 lead and even though Muguruza broke her serve in the sixth game, the first set quickly belonged to Halep. The third-seeded Muguruza opened the second set with a 3-1 lead, but Halep drew even at 4-4 and after managing to hold serve in the marathon ninth game of the set, the Romanian broke her opponent at love to win the match 6-1 6-4.