Day 12 Roundup: Serena, Safarova to fight for Roland Garros title, Mike Bryan crowned at mixed

Lucie Safarova continued her giant-killing run here on Thursday, beating former French Open winner Ana Ivanovic to set up a Roland Garros final showdown with Serena Williams.

En route to facing the 2008 champion in her first French Open semifinal, Safarova has defeated No. 2 seed Sharapova in the last 16, which was her first top five win of this season.

Double-faulting on match point while leading 5-4 in the second set, the 13th seed denied three break points from the seventh-seeded Ivanovic but failed to pull off the fourth, dropping her serve to make it 5-5.

The 28-year-old Safarova, however, broke straight back in the 11th game and held the next with powerful forehand to serve out the match 7-5, 7-5.

She trailed 5-2 in the first set against the seventh-seeded Serb, before launching an impressive comeback and holding to love in the 12th game to clinch the first set.

"Ana was playing right away well and going for her shots, so I slowly started to get into the rhythm, into the game, and played really well the game to break her back," Safarova told a post-match press conference.

"In the second set, I think when I realized that I finally can be in the finals, I got a little bit tense there.

"But when I lost the serve I shook it off and started to play aggressive again, and then I served it out," she recalled.

With the victory, Safarova, whose best previous slam showing was a semifinal defeat at Wimbledon last year, has reached her first Grand Slam final.

She is also the first Czech woman in 34 years to reach the French Open final and will have to tackle top-ranked Williams to put her hands on the Suzzane Lenglen Cup.

"I really started well," said Ivanovic. "I really had a good plan coming into the match, but I just felt like I ran a little bit out of gas.

"To be on that level I need a little bit better footwork, and I kind of was lacking that. Also explosivity in my serve.

"I'm really proud of what I achieved these two weeks," she added.

Later in Court Phillipe Chatrier, two-time champion Serena Williams came back from one set down to beat Swiss Timea Bacsinszky for her 24th Grand Slam final and fourth at Roland Garros.

The top-ranked American struggled for most of the match with a cold, having had towels around her neck between games, but still managed to a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory.

Her 23rd seeded opponent, who was playing in her first major semifinal, broke in the second set to lead 3-2 before Williams broke back twice and served it out 6-3.

Having managed 10 games in a row in the last two sets, Williams had 5-0 up in the third and wrapped it up 6-0 while pushing so hard on her already under pressure Bacsinszky.

Williams, who declined to show up at a routine post-match press conference citing an excuse of illness, is seeking her 20th Grand Slam title and the third at Roland Garros.

The last match of the day was re-arranged to Court Suzzane Lenglen where doubles specialist Mike Bryan partnered with Bethanie Mattek-Sands to breeze past Lucie Hradecka and Marcin Matkowski 7-6 (3), 6-1 for the mixed doubles title.

Meanwhile in the men's doubles semifinals, top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan reached the French Open men's doubles final for the sixth time with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Italian duo Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini.

Thw twin brothers, chasing their third title here, will play the third seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo after the latter pair defeated fifth-seeded Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau 6-3, 7-5.

Having converted four of their five break points, the Bryans edged the Australian Open champions on Court Philippe Chatrier in 59 minutes to extend their record to 60-14 at Roland Garros.

Twelve years ago, the 37-year-old Americans claimed their first of 16 major titles here before again reigning the Paris Slam in 2013. Enditemh