Romania's Simona Halep celebrates after winning her tennis match against Ukraine's Elina Svitolina at the Roland Garros 2017 French Open.
Romanian third seed Halep trailed by a set and 5-1 against the hard-hitting fifth seed but somehow dug herself out of a hole before storming to victory to set up a semi-final against Czech second seed Karolina Pliskova.
The No. 1 ranking will hang in the balance: If Pliskova reaches the final, she will replace Angelique Kerber, a first-round loser in Paris, atop the WTA.
Asked whether she felt any additional pressure because of that possible prize, Pliskova answered with a smile.
But the Romanian won five consecutive games and then saved a match point to take it to the decider, which she finished off easily. "I didn't really know what I was doing, but I worked hard, I kept believing in what I was doing".
Halep rattled off the next five games to take a 6-5 lead, and Svitolina had to save four set points to force the frame into a tiebreaker.
But Svitolina, appearing in a Grand Slam quarter-final for only the second time, held her nerve to take the first set.
But that would be to discount the threat of Latvia's fearless youngster Jelena Ostapenko and Swiss 30th seed Timea Bacsinszky who are first on Court Philippe Chatrier. She served good, as well, but it was about few points. "It's not like you're going to get it for free, you know". Now she's in the semi-finals and she and Halep can fight for the No1 ranking as well as a spot in the title match.
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Halep entered Wednesday's quarterfinal having not lost a set all tournament long, but quickly fell behind 5-0 in the opener, before losing the set 6-3.
"And now it's close, but it's close and it's far because I'm playing against somebody who I would say one of the best girls on clay". She can play aggressive.
"I played a good game".
Thursday's other women's semifinal sees 2015 French Open semifinalist Timea Bacsinszky play Wimbledon junior victor Jelena Ostapenko. That title might come at Roland Garros this year. It should be tight, but it seems that the fourth seed will be making her second French Open final tomorrow.
It's just tough to play incredible tennis against, I don't know, player which is 100, and she's also struggling with something.
Ostapenko sealed the win on her second match point with a forehand victor to break Bacsinszky's serve for the fourth time in the set.
Simona Halep established her credentials to become the newest French Open champion with a blistering 6-1, 6-1 victory over Carla Suarez-Navarro to reach the quarter-finals on Monday.
The Romanian, who has struggled with on-court negativity at times, most recently in a quarterfinal loss to the United Kingdom's Johanna Konta at the Miami Open, where Halep let her frustration get the better of her, has turned a corner mentally in recent weeks and that showed in Wednesday's comeback.
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