FRENCH OPEN 2009: Women's Semifinals Preview

Here are my predictions for the women's semifinals at Roland Garros this year. I went 3 out of 4 in my predictions of the men's quarters but sadly predicted only 1 out of 4 in the women's quarters correctly.

Dinara Safina RUS (1) vs. Maria Sharapova RUS Dominika Cibulkova SVK (20). "Marat's little sister" no more, Dinara Safina is playing like she is a woman on a mission to win her first major title. Although she finally lost a set (to a Victoria Azarenka playing out of her mind) in the quarterfinals, she should have no difficulty getting past giant-killer Dominika Cibulkova to get to the Roland Garros final for the second consecutive year, and her second consecutive Grand Slam final of 2009. Cibulkova was lucky to face a Maria Sharapova who had completely run out of gas but the diminutive youngster took advantage of her opportunity and is in her first Grand Slam semifinal. When you're 5 foot, 3 inches taking out one 6-foot-plus Russian is a surprise, but taking out two in a row is an impossibility.

PREDICTION: Safina in 2 sets.

Serena Williams USA (2) Svetlana Kuznetsova RUS (7) vs. Sorana Cirstea ROU Samantha Stosur AUS (30). This is the semifinal I did not see coming at all. After seeing how well Cirstea dealt with the pressure against Jelena Jankovic to reach this point I picked her to take out doubles specialist Samantha Stosur however, instead experience bested youthful exuberance.

In one of the best matches of the tournament, Sveta finally won one of those heart-breakingly close matches that she has been losing for years. She beat Serena Williams for only the second time in 8 meetings despite the fact that Serena had come back from facing imminent defeat in the second set to be up a break in the final set. Sveta finally hung tough and was able to claw back to even and surprisingly, Serena was the first to crack under the pressure at 4-all and 5-all in the final set.

Against Stosur, I am confident that Sveta will find a way to make it to the final for the second time in four years, where the 2006 Finalist and 2008 Finalist will face each other for the 2009 title.

PREDICTION: Kuznetsova in 2 sets.