Simona Halep mounts remarkable recovery to reach French Open semi-finals

Simona Halep mounted a remarkable recovery from a set and 5-1 down against Elina Svitolina to reach the French Open semi-finals.

Title favourite Halep was being overpowered and looked set for a disappointing exit before turning things around to win 3-6 7-6 (8/6) 6-0.

She saved a match point in the second set tie-break and then raced through the third to set up a last-four clash with second seed Karolina Pliskova.

Halep was briefly dumped by coach Darren Cahill in March because of her poor attitude and the Australian will certainly know he made the right decision in coming back now after this superb display of fighting spirit.

Pliskova, meanwhile, does not like clay and had won only two matches in five previous visits to Roland Garros.

She has not been happy with her form here this year either but raised her level when it mattered to end French hopes for another year with a 7-6 (7/3) 6-4 victory over Caroline Garcia.

Pliskova has the extra carrot of knowing that victory over Halep would see her overtake Angelique Kerber as world number one.

Svitolina is number one in the 2017 standings and arrived in Paris fresh from a final victory over Halep at the Italian Open.

But the Romanian was hampered by an ankle injury there and had appeared to be in prime form heading into the rematch.

She lost just two games to Carla Suarez Navarro in the fourth round while Svitolina had to come from 2-5 down in the deciding set to beat Petra Martic.

But it was the fifth seed who flew out of the blocks, defying cool, windy conditions to flash winners past Halep.

The 2014 runner-up pulled it back from 5-0 to 5-3, providing Svitolina with a warning of what might happen when she won five of the first six games in the second set.

Svitolina did not do too much wrong, with the credit going to Halep for some amazing defence and courageous play.

The Romanian should have clinched the set when, having won five games in a row, she had four set points on the Svitolina serve but could not take any of them.

The drama continued as Svitolina created a set point in the tie-break but Halep found the outside of the line and then clinched it with the most fortunate of net cords.

That took the wind firmly out of Svitolina's sails and there was never any danger of a comeback in the third set.