Serena Williams will be looking forward to winning her second French Open title since 2002, after powering through to the final against Sara Errani.
Williams thrashed Italy’s Errani 6-0, 6-1 in their semi-final clash on Thursday to set up a date with second seed Maria Sharapova, who had beaten Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 in the first semi-final earlier in the day.
The world number one and French Open defending champion will meet on Saturday after coming through their semi-finals in different fashion.
“To come back as the defending champion, it’s extremely special to get back on that stage where it comes down to the last two players of the tournament,” Sharapova said.
Errani was overwhelmed by Williams in their clash. The American broke to love in the opening game and fired 19 winners, dropping just two points on serve on her way to winning the opening set in just 21 minutes.
The top seed swatted away a forehand return to break in the second, and Errani could not get a racquet near Williams’ ace serve.
When the Italian finally won a game after 37 minute, she raised her arm in triumph as the crowd chanted “Sara! Sara!” in the hope of seeing her put up a good fight, but Williams had better plans for the match.
A backhand return winner earned the American her 5th break of the match, as she capped an impressive performance in just 46 minutes with another totally dominating service game.
The victory extends Williams’ winning runs to a career-high 30 matches.
“I didn’t necessarily go out there feeling great,” the world number one said. “For me, it was more like let’s just see what happens and try to do the best I could.”