Fri, June 08, 2012
PARIS, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Hot-favored Maria Sharapova will contest with unheralded Sara Errani for the French Open title on Saturday in their first ever meeting between the two 25-year-olds.
Second-seeded Russian Sharapova put on a daunting performance to beat Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-3, while 21st seed Errani of Italy stunned Australian sixth seed Samantha Stosur 7-5, 1-6, 6-3.
If Sharapova, the 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open champion, wins Saturday's final, she will become just the 10th woman to complete a career Grand Slam.
"It's an amazing feeling to be in my first final. I have been in two semifinals but it was always my dream of getting to the final stage," said Sharapova.
"That's pretty special. After my shoulder surgery, my ranking was out of the 100 in the world, but I thought if I could be number one in the world before that then I could do it again," she added.
Errani, who turned out to be a surprise finalist though she had won three clay court build-up tournaments, will be playing in her first Grand Slam final.
