French Open PHOTOS: Djokovic to face Thiem in semis; Serena staggers into last four

Photos from the French Open matches played at the Roland Garros on Thursday

Defending champion Serena Williams survived a fright as she laboured into the semi-finals of the French Open with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 victory against Kazakh Yulia Putintseva on Thursday.

The World No 1, who will take on Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens for a place in Saturday's final, made a mess of numerous routine shots as her opponent took the opening set having made only one unforced error.

The American survived two break points at 4-4 in the second set, which she eventually won when world number 60 Putintseva served a double fault.

The momentum had swung Williams's way and the American crushed Putintseva in the decider, wrapping it up on her fourth match point with an unreturnable serve.

Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens advanced to her first major semi-final after defeating Swiss Timea Bacsinszky 7-5, 6-2 in their quarter-final on Thursday.

Novak Djokovic moved a step closer to a maiden French Open title when he swept aside Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals at Roland Garros on Thursday.

The World No 1, whose half of the draw got easier after nine-times champion Rafael Nadal pulled out injured last week, will next take on either Austrian tyro Dominic Thiem or the cheeky Belgian David Goffin.

Serbian Djokovic breezed through the opening set, overcame a slight glitch in the second and came back stronger after a brief rain interruption to seal a straightforward win.

He ended the contest on his second match point when Berdych returned into the net.

World No 13 Austrian Dominic Thiem went through to his first grand slam semi-final after burying Belgian David Goffin 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-4 6-1 in their quarte-final clash.
The Austrian will face World No 1 Djokovic for a place in the final.

Both players took time to find their range in cold, damp conditions and the first three games yielded three breaks of serve, including one that 12th-seeded Goffin conceded on a double fault.

Thiem, seeded 13, began finding the lines with heavy groundstrokes off both wings but, as his accuracy then waned, the Belgian tightened his defensive play, creating openings to attack the Austrian's weaker backhand and winning the set on his first set point.

But after a tight second set that Thiem shaded 9-7 in the tiebreak, the Austrian added the precision that his power game had earlier been missing to take the third and fourth sets more comfortably.