Garbiñe Muguruza ­slaughters Samantha Stosur to make French Open final

The Spaniard was in outstanding form right from the start, racing into a 4-0 lead in the opening set before serving it out inside half an hour.

She broke again at the start of the second set, and despite Stosur breaking back she kept on taking the Australian's serve apart to wrap up a 6-2 6-4 victory.

"I played very well until I led 5-2 in the second set and then she stepped up a gear and I became a bit nervous," Muguruza, looking to become the first Spaniard to lift the trophy since Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 1998, said courtside.

"Emotions sometimes can be bad."

Muguruza was seeded fourth going into the tournament, that seeding based largely on the rankings points she won by making the Wimbledon final last year.

But she has had a terrible 2016 so far and wasn't expected to progress far in the tournament, despite a run to the semi-final in Rome a few weeks ago - her first decent tournament result of the season.

Those low expectations have been massively exceeded, however: after being taken to three sets by first round opponent Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, she has not lost another set and has looked in the form of her life.