Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, right, congratulates Romania's Simona Halep with winning her semifinal match in three sets 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, at the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium, in Paris, France.
Roland Garros' battle of the birthdays was won by Jelena Ostapenko Thursday as the Latvian became the first unseeded woman to make the French Open final since Mima Jausovec in 1983.
Third seed Halep stormed into the quarter-finals without dropping a set, but she faced match point against Elina Svitolina before pulling off a miraculous recovery from 3-6, 1-5 down to reach the last four.
It's Halep's second Grand Slam final and first since almost winning in Paris three years ago in an absolutely stellar title match against Maria Sharapova.
Following a last eight win over Denmark's former world number one Caroline Wozniacki, Ostapenko became the first teenager to reach the penultimate stage of the Grand Slam event since 2007, when Serbia's Ana Ivanovic achieved the feat. Ivanovic won the title at the French Open the next year.
Now Romanian Halep has a chance to move to the top of the standings if she lands a maiden grand slam title on Saturday.
On facing Bacsinszky, Ostapenko added: "We are good friends, because we played the doubles in China past year, and that's how I got to know her, she is a really nice person". Pliskova would break back to get back on serve at 3-4 but Halep took the final two games on the trot to reach her second career Grand Slam final.
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Elena Ostapenko and Simona Halep made the final of the Open championship of France.
At the beginning of the third set Halep didn't convert a break point, but in the fourth game she broke and then held her serve to lead 4-1.
Ostapenko and Bacsinszky, who turned 20 and 28 respectively on the day of the match, had previously played doubles together in China previous year and knew each other well, but, in a one-on-one dual, the younger athlete prevailed. I expect her to give everything she has, to hit all the balls, to play with confidence.
"I was just trying to stay aggressive and to go for a shot when I could", Ostapenko said. But 20 years ago, he said Thursday, he came to Roland Garros hoping "to win one match".
She said: "I'm really happy with my win today and it was a really tough match".
But the Latvian took the challenge to Bacsinszky with her aggression, nipping ahead at 4-3 before the Swiss called for the trainer.
But there was no real pressure on Halep after all as Pliskova surrendered the opening set when she hit a crosscourt forehand wide - her 24th unforced error as her favoured weapon, her whipping forehand, became her worst enemy. "She's got a really complete game". But that did not seem to trouble the Swiss player too much as she broke straight back. Her successful all-or-nothing approach saw her fire 50 winners and 45 unforced errors against Bacsinszky.
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