Kuznetsova powers through

Kuznetsova: Powerful display

Also see

• Order of play
• Latest results
• Galleries

Svetlana Kuznetsova secured her place in the French Open semi-finals with an impressive 7-5 6-2 win over Kaia Kanepi of Estonia.

Despite the straight sets scoreline, it was a tougher match than expected for Kuznetsova as rank outsider Kanepi had her back-pedalling in the first set with the weight of her groundstrokes.

However, the fourth seed eventually showed her class and will play Dinara Safina for a place in Saturday's final, after Safina beat her fellow Russian Elena Dementieva in three sets.

As the quarter-final clash unfolded it was Kanepi who threatened first as she went a break up in the sixth game when Kuznetsova netted a forehand drive.

Settled

But the Russian hit back immediately to level the scores and then broke serve for a second time to lead 6-5. A confident service game to love followed as Kuznetsova went one set up in just under an hour.

The one-set advantage visibly settled the Russian, who had sped into the last eight for the loss of just 19 games - the fewest by any player apart from second seed Ana Ivanovic.

The 22-year-old then grabbed early breaks in the third and fifth games of the second set and that appeared to deflate Kanepi, the first Estonian to play in a Grand Slam quarter-final.

Kuznetsova was fully in command from then on and she raced away to reach her fourth Grand Slam semi-final in clinical fashion.