Simona Halep advances to French Open final

Paris: Simona Halep of Romania advanced to her first Grand Slam final, beating Andrea Petkovic of Germany 6-2, 7-6 (4) on Thursday.

Halep will face Maria Sharapova in Saturday's final.

Halep, seeded fourth at the French Open, has been steadily improving at major tournaments. She reached the fourth round at last year's U.S. Open, then advanced to the quarter-finals at the Australian Open in January.

Petkovic was also playing in her first Grand Slam semi-final.