Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic advance at French Open

“It was a first final”, she said.

Williams moved to 261-8 when winning the first set in a major match. A service game to love from Thiem then put him 3-0 up. It took an errant backhand from her opponent to get her out of that hole. They all raised their arms to the skies as the crowd shouted “Ole!”

World No. 1 and defending champion Serena Williams fought her way into the French Open final on Friday. Fatigue and workload is clearly on Muguruza’s side as she’s had a couple of days off between matches.

Breaks for the Serb came in the fourth and sixth games and the set was wrapped up in just 25 minutes.

After three conventional matches here in Paris, rain finally caught up with Serena.

But Williams hit a forehand victor to break right back to 2-1, held to 2-all, and was on her way.

The 34-year-old had been strangely silent, wearing a look of resignation, but at last she unleashed a ferocious scream.

Australia’s Samantha Stosur returns the ball to Spain’s Garbine Muguruza during their semifinal match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium, Friday, June 3, 2016 in Paris. But Muguruza still doesn’t know for sure that she has what it takes to win a major.

It was Murray’s first win over a top-four player at a grand slam since ousting Djokovic in the 2013 Wimbledon final.

For the second match in a row, the No. 1-seeded Williams was hardly at her best, falling behind early and making 22 unforced errors in the first set alone. Muguruza has won no less than 71 percent of her first serve points and has produced 41 winners in her last two matches.

She was still a breakdown, however, and had to hold her next game if she wished to keep her Roland Garros hopes alive.

Williams is a win away from matching Steffi Graf’s 22 grand slam titles in the Open Era and Djokovic needs one victory to become the eighth man to tally all four majors.

Garber: Like most of our experts, I picked Serena to win. Miscue followed miscue, until she was a set and a break down in the French Open quarterfinals.

The unseeded Bertens, meanwhile, registered a 12th consecutive victory in style as she dispatched Timea Bacsinszky 7-5 6-2.

Muguruza was also a finalist at Wimbledon in 2015.

When Williams wound up holding with a drop volley victor, she looked up to the gray sky with her palms aloft, as if to say, “Whew!” “Of course if this player is a champion it’s even more enjoyable”.

Stosur served first, and was immediately under pressure. The No. 1-seeded American’s strokes were off, her range was wrong, to the tune of mistake after mistake after mistake.

The set then stayed with serve to 5-2 for Muguruza.

Bertens, covered from neck to toe in a long-sleeved white shirt, a blue skirt and skin-tight black leggings on yet another chilly day, had two set points in the first set but missed both with forehand errors.

The French Open women’s semifinals are going on right now, and good seats are still available.

The above photo, from Post freelancer Doug Robson, was taken during a match between top-ranked Serena Williams – who’s only the greatest woman to ever play the game – and Kiki Bertens. Muguruza was ruthless as she consolidated her second break comfortably to jump ahead with a 4-0 lead. I mean, last time we played here in France she was able to win the match. If Muguruza were more of a finesse player, or a counterpuncher, the heavy, wet conditions might be a benefit for Williams.