French Open: Ill Serena Williams comes back again to reach final

PARIS – At changeovers in her French Open semifinal, an ill Serena Williams walked slowly to the sideline, where even lowering herself to sit seemed difficult.

With the temperature nearing 85 degrees, she pressed white towels filled with ice against her forehead and neck and guzzled water.

Early on, her play was as poor as her health. She failed to chase balls she normally would. As telling as anything: On those occasions when she did win points, Williams mostly refrained from her familiar fist pumps and yells of “Come on!”

Never can count her out, though, no matter the circumstances. Down a set and a break Thursday, and clearly not herself, Williams summoned the resolve to reach the final by beating 23rd-seeded Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.

After getting broken to fall behind 3-2 in the second set, Williams claimed the final 10 games. She had a 12-2 edge in winners in the final set.

“Stunning,” said Williams’ coach, Patrick Mouratoglou. “This is the difference between champions and everyone else. There is no logical explanation.”

Mouratoglou said the No. 1-ranked Williams has been dealing for several days with the flu, including a fever and difficulty breathing.

Williams skipped her news conference – something sister Venus did after losing last week, drawing a $3,000 fine – and issued a statement reading: “I have been feeling unwell for a few days, and … I needed to see the tournament doctor.”

Now one victory from her third French Open championship and 20th major title in all, Williams faces 13th-seeded Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic on Saturday.

“I tried everything. I thought if I lose, I will lose with a fight,” Williams told crowd in French. “I tried, I tried. I found the energy. I don’t know where, but I found it. And I won. I hope that on Saturday, I hope …”

Next comes Williams’ 24th Grand Slam final, and Safarova’s first. In her statement, Williams called herself “determined to be 100 percent ready.”

The left-handed Safarova eliminated defending champion Maria Sharapova in the fourth round and 2008 champion Ana Ivanovic 7-5, 7-5 on Thursday.

A title and a final: Mike Bryan’s great day in Paris

Mike Bryan enjoyed a good day at Roland Garros, first reaching a sixth French Open doubles final with his twin brother Bob then taking the first trophy up for grabs at Roland Garros.

Teaming with fellow U.S. player Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Bryan won the mixed doubles title, beating Lucie Hradecka and Marcin Matkowski 7-6 (3), 6-1.

Mattek-Sands and Bryan hope they will play together at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics next year if they are selected in the U.S team.

“She has really improved a lot,” Bryan said. “Our chemistry was great from the first point on; it was not always smooth but she kept me in it.”

It was Bryan’s fourth mixed doubles title at a Grand Slam tournament.

Today: Djokovic-Murray, Wawrinka-Tsonga

Novak Djokovic resumes his journey for a first French Open title today, facing No. 3 Andy Murray in the semifinals.

The 28-year-old Serb can become the eighth man in tennis history with at least one title from each Grand Slam tournament, joining Rafael Nadal – who he defeated Wednesday, Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, Don Budge, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver and Fred Perry.

Djokovic leads head-to-head with Murray 18-8, taking their past seven meetings.

The other semifinal is No. 8 Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland against No. 14 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, a matchup that’s been about as even as possible.

They’ve met six times, with each man winning three matches. They’ve faced each other twice at the French Open, both times going five sets, and each won once.