After playing both the shortest and the longest match in the tournament, Sara is in the semifinal of the Open GDF Suez in Paris. In the second round, Magdalena Rybarikova retired after just 28 minutes and 4 games (all won by Sara). The quarterfinal was a lot tougher: Sara played Carla Suarez Navarro in a re-match of their Australian Open first round match. It was a very close match, with a lot of breakpoints on both sides. After the girls split the first two sets 7-5, 4-6, Suarez Navarro had a matchpoint at 5-4. Sara saved the matchpoint and won the next few games to finally take the match after 3 hours and 4 minutes: 7-5, 4-6, 7-5. When asked after the match what makes it so hard to play against Suarez Navarro, Sara replied:

“Everything! She was playing amazing, forehand, backhand, cross-court, down the line…It’s difficult to find a way to play against her – you just have to keep going every point and maybe I had a bit of luck.”

In the semifinal Sara will meet Kiki Bertens from the Netherlands, who made it to the main draw as a lucky loser. They played once before, in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 2011 and Sara won that match 7-6, 6-1.

Since Lucie Safarova withdrew from the doubles semifinal, Sara and Roberta are in the final, where they will meet Hlavackova/Huber.