View From The Baseline: French Open semi-finals recap from Roland Garros

The semi-finals of the French Open has drawn to a close.

Here are the highlights and the lowlights of four cracking matches.

Player Of The Round

Rafael Nadal is one win away from an unprecedented 10th title at the French Open after outclassing Austrian sixth seed Dominic Thiem 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 on Friday.

Nadal, who won the last of his French Opens in 2014, is bidding to become the first man to win 10 titles at a single Grand Slam. He only lost 29 games on his way to the final, which is the most dominant run of his career at Roland Garros.

Shock Of The Round

Jelena Ostapenko won her birthday battle against Timea Bacsinszky to become the first unseeded woman to reach the French Open final for 34 years, will now face Simona Halep who overcame Karolina Pliskova 6-4 3-6 6-3 in the day’s second semi-final.

Ostapenko powered her way to a 7-6 (7/4) 3-6 6-3 victory to make history as the first Latvian grand slam finalist and the youngest at any grand slam since Caroline Wozniacki in New York eight years ago.

Match of The Round

Andy Murray’s French Open hopes ended with a five-set defeat by Swiss third seed Stan Wawrinka in the semi-finals.

The world number one was beaten 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 5-7 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 in four hours and 34 minutes after an epic 5 sets battle.

The Swiss hit 87 winners – 45 on the forehand side – as he finally overcame the determination and defensive skills of Murray.

Fact Of The Round

Jelena Ostapenko became the first unseeded player to reach the women’s singles final at Roland Garros since Mima Jausovec lost to Chris Evert in 1983. She is also now the first Latvian to reach a grand slam final.

Shot Of The Round

Andy Murray v Stan Wawrinka

Stat Of The Round

Rafael Nadal became the third man in history to reach 10 finals at one grand slam event, after Bill Tilden (U.S. Open) and Roger Federer (Wimbledon).

Quote Of The Round

“When you’re 5-0 down and three breaks behind in the fifth set you’re not that optimistic. But I tried to keep fighting. The 3-0 game, we were at love-30 in that game. Had I managed to get a break there, it might have been a little bit different. I didn’t.” – Andy Murray after his semi-final loss to Stan Wawrinka.