Iga Swiatek cruises to first grand slam final at French Open

In one of the most unexpected slam semi-finals in recent times, Swiatek fully justified her status as favourite with a 6-2 6-1 victory in windy conditions at Roland Garros.

The 19-year-old has established herself as one of the most exciting young talents in the game since winning the Wimbledon junior title two years ago and has been unstoppable at Roland Garros so far.

Her quarter-final demolition of top seed Simona Halep was the stand-out, but the way Swiatek has backed that up has been just as impressive and she is yet to drop more than four games in any set.

The Pole will contest just her second tour-level final after losing to Polona Hercog at the low-key WTA tournament in Lugano last year.

The stakes here are considerably higher, with Swiatek moving on to face Sofia Kenin for a prize packet of nearly £1.5million.

It is the second year in a row that an unseeded 19-year-old has made the final, with Marketa Vondrousova losing to Ashleigh Barty last summer.

Defeat ends the remarkable run of world number 131 Podoroska, the lowest-ranked player to reach the semi-finals in Paris in the Open era.

She was unable to find any answer to the all-round skills of Swiatek but the 23-year-old, who was competing in the main draw of a grand slam for just the second time, will break into the world’s top 50 on Monday.

Kenin too good for Kvitova

Sofia Kenin will bid for her second grand slam title of 2020 after beating Petra Kvitova to reach the French Open final.

The 21-year-old was a surprise winner of the Australian Open in January but has already shown that was no fluke with her run here.

She played a hugely intelligent match to defeat seventh seed Kvitova 6-4 7-5 and will take on 19-year-old Iga Swiatek in the trophy decider on Saturday.

Kvitova had hoped to reach her first French Open final three years after making her comeback to the sport in Paris following the horrific stabbing she experienced in her home in December 2016.

She became emotional on reaching the quarter-finals as the enormity of the journey she has been on sunk in and she had not dropped a set prior to this match but struggled in windy conditions.

The Czech was quickly 4-1 down and, although she improved, she was unable to prevent Kenin winning the opening set.

Kvitova, by far the most experienced of the four semi-finalists, put Kenin under pressure early in the second set but could not find the consistency she needed to break serve.

It was Kenin who forged ahead with a break for 3-2, and she then saved four break points as Kvitova looked to hit back immediately.

Kenin had shown grit as well as guile but suddenly faltered trying to serve out the match, allowing Kvitova to level at 5-5.

She swiftly recovered from the disappointment, though, to earn herself another chance and this time she took it.

Kenin is looking to become the first woman to win more than one slam title in a season since Angelique Kerber won in Melbourne and New York in 2016.