Daria Kasatkina of Russia defeated compatriot Veronika Kudermetova 6-4, 7-6(5) on Wednesday at the French Open to reach the final four of a Grand Slam for the first time.

Kasatkina, 25, will face World No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the semifinals after Swiatek defeated Jessica Pegula to win her 33rd match in a row. Swiatek leads their head-to-head 3-1, with the top seed winning all three matches on hard court this winter.

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Seed number 20 Kasatkina advanced to her first Grand Slam semifinal, defeating No.29 seed Kudermetova in two close sets to earn a first trip to the final four in 2 hours and 8 minutes. Kasatkina improved to 2-0 against her close rival, following up a 2021 victory in St. Petersburg with the biggest victory of her career to date.

Kasatkina’s two previous Grand Slam quarterfinal appearances resulted in losses to Sloane Stephens at Roland Garros in 2018 and Angelique Kerber at Wimbledon in 2018.

“Everything happens for the first time and I’m really happy to be in the semis. Dream coming true and everything is fine,” Kasatkina said after her victory.

“Tomorrow is another mountain in front of me which I have to climb. Maybe it’s even better that I don’t have much time to think about how good (it) is to be in the semifinals, so I have another battle tomorrow,” she said.

“I cannot compare what we are going to have tomorrow and what we had in February, March when we were (last) playing. So it’s going to be a completely different match. I want to win a lot, she wants to win as well, and it’s going to be a good match.”

Earlier, World No.1 Iga Swiatek extended her unbeaten streak to 33 matches with a win over No.11 seed Jessica Pegula in the French Open quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Swiatek, 21, advanced to the French Open semifinals for the second time in her career with a 6-3, 6-2 win over American Jessica Pegula in Paris.

Swiatek’s victory also puts her in sole possession of third place on the list of the longest WTA winning streaks this century; she previously shared 32 with Justine Henin’s effort from 2007 to 2008.

Pegula put Swiatek to the test in the 89th minute of the quarterfinal.

To begin the match, the pair traded service breaks, and the American saved three match points in the second set before succumbing to defeat. Swiatek, on the other hand, won seven of the eight games he played in between, leading 6-3, 4-1.

Swiatek broke Pegula five times on her 11 chances, with 30 winners to 28 unforced errors.

(Inputs from IANS)