Tennis: Unknowns reach French final

The womens finalists have been found at this year's French Open, and the word on everybody's lips is - who?

Francesca Schiavone and Samantha Stosur, that's who.

Stosur this morning stormed into her first Grand Slam tennis final, thrashing 4th seeded Jelena Jankovic 6-1, 6-2.

Stosur is the first Australian woman in 30 years to reach a major final after demolishing Jankovic in only an hour. The seventh seed served superbly and apart from a minor blemish at the start of the second set where she dropped serve to trail trail 2-love, Stosur was in control.

She rattled off the last six games straight to book her place against Italian Francesca Schiavone.

Schiavone advanced after Elena Dementieva quit with a calf injury when she lost the first set 7-6. The fifth-seeded Russian says she first suffered the problem to her left calf in her second-round win and aggravated the problem against Schiavone, restricting her movement.

Schiavone is the first Italian woman to make a Grand Slam final in the Open era. She says the win has some historical weight back home and she is enjoying it.

* Tonight sees the two mens semifinals at Roland Garros: First, 5th seeded Swede Robin Soderling - the man who toppled Roger Federer - up against Czech Tomas Berdych [15]; followed by Austrian Jurgen Melzer [22], who will have his work cut out against 2nd seed Rafael Nadal of Spain.

- NEWSTALK ZB