Ivanovic and Safarova maintain form to reach French Open semis

Two of the women that will contest the last-four at the French Open have been confirmed at Roland Garros today, with the form players Ana Ivanovic and Lucie Safarova both successfully coming through their quarter-final matches. The Serbian and the Czech will now play each other in a truly cosmopolitan semi-final with no clear favourite, as they battle for a place in the final itself.

Safarova won their clash in France last year

The semi-final match-up between the pair seems evenly balanced, although Safarova may be a slight favourite given the way she dispatched the reigning champion Maria Sharapova earlier in the tournament.

Their head to head also leans in the Czech lady's favour, as she currently leads Ivanovic 5-3 in terms of victories. This will be the first time they have met this year on the tour, but they did clash at last year's French Open when Safarova won in straight sets.

Power game from Safarova

Safarova had to battle hard, especially in the opening set, to beat Spain's Garbine Muguruza in her last-eight match. The first set went to a tie-break, despite the Czech almost breaking her rival's serve in the seventh game, as Muguruza saved four break points against her. The 13^th seed took control of the tie-break to go a set up and then got the decisive break in the second set to record a solid 7-6 6-3 success.

She seems to be growing in confidence after her victory over the second seed, Sharapova.

Ivanovic reaching her peak

Ivanovic is also dreaming of a Grand Slam title in France. She seems to be approaching the level that lifted her to the number one spot in 2008, a year she reached the final at the Australian Open and took the title at Roland Garros.

How she would dearly love to claim only her second Grand Slam this time around.

Now back at number seven in the world rankings, she was far too good for Ukrainian Elina Svitolina in their quarter-final contest. She brushed aside her opponent and the awkward, windy conditions on court to cruise through 6-3 6-2. In doing so, she extended her unbeaten run against her younger opponent to seven.