MARIA Sharapova will face Eugenie Bouchard in a glamour French Open semi-final.
Sharapova survived a scare to advance with a hard-fought win against rising Spanish star Garbine Muguruza.
As she did against Australia’s Sam Stosur in the previous round, tournament favourite Sharapova was forced to come back from a set down to win 1-6 7-5 6-1 in two hours and six minutes.
“I didn’t do much in the first set to hurt her, she was doing many things well,” Sharapova said.
“I also knew that the match wasn’t over. I still had a fair bit of time to change things around. I was very happy with the way I came through.”
Bouchard moved into her second consecutive grand slam semi-final with a tough 7-6 (7-4) 2-6 7-5 win against No. 14 seed Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain.
Bouchard, the 18th seed, battled for two hours and 22 minutes to advance to the last four, matching her performance at the Australian Open, where she lost to eventual champion Li Na.
“For me it was such a physical and emotional battle,” Bouchard said.
“I was down. I was always coming back and fighting and trying.
“It was really, really tough. After over two hours of battling out there, I was just so proud of myself and just excited.”
No. 2 seed Novak Djokovic advanced to the semi-finals with a 7-5 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 win against big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic.
He will play Ernests Gulbis, the Latvian No. 18 seed who had knocked out Roger Federer in the fourth round and who upset sixth-seeded quarter-final opponent Tomas Berdych 6-3 6-2 6-4.
Seventh-seeded Australian pair Casey Dellacqua and Ashleigh Barty were knocked out in the women’s doubles quarter-finals, comprehensively beaten 6-0 6-1 by No. 2 seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci of Italy.
It was better news for another Australian doubles player, with Sam Groth advancing to the men’s semi-finals alongside partner Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan.
The duo upset No. 9 seeds Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Swede Robert Lindstedt 6-3 6-3.
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