The 2010 Roland Garros women’s semifinals have produced an unlike quartet. After a stunning win by Sam Stosur of world No. 1 Serena Williams, the tournament will crown a brand new women’s Grand Slam winner on Saturday. ADHEREL

Francesca Schiavone is the first Italian woman to appear in a Grand Slam semifinal in the Open Era, she takes on two-time Slam runner-up Elena Dementieva.

In the earlier semifinal, Stosur will take on Jelena Jankovic, a finalist at the 2008 US Open. Stosur was a surprise semifinalist at the French Open a year ago

2010 Roland Garros will produce a first-time Grand Slam singles champion, the 37th winner in the Open Era.

This is the first time since 1979 Australian Open that all 4 semifinalists have not yet won a GS title.

Of the semifinalists, only Jankovic and Dementieva have previously reached the final of a Grand Slam; Jankovic was runner-up at 2008 US Open (l. S.Williams), while Dementieva was runner-up at 2004 Roland Garros (l. Myskina) and 2004 US Open (l. Kuznetsova).

Jankovic (2007, 2008), Dementieva (2004) and Stosur (2009) have all previously reached a Roland Garros SF.

Schiavone is making her Grand Slam SF debut at Roland Garros; she is the first Italian woman to reach a Grand Slam semifinal since 1954 Roland Garros (Silvia Lazzarino).

Schiavone is the only player currently ranked outside of the Top 10 to advance to the SF. Since 1976, 3 players ranked outside of the Top 10 have won the title at RG: No.18 S.Barker (1976 as No.1 seed), No.17 V.Ruzici (1978 as No.2 seed) and No.12 Henin (2005 as No.10 seed).

Schiavone is also the only player in SF not to be seeded in Top 10. The women’s singles title has only been won once by a player not seeded in the Top 10 (1933, Margaret Scriven, unseeded).

For the second Grand Slam running, all semifinalists are aged 25 or over.

All semifinalists have won a clay court title, and 2 of them in 2010: Stosur (Charleston) and Schiavone (Barcelona). In terms of career clay titles, Jankovic leads the way with 5; Dementieva and Schiavone 2; and Stosur, 1.

This is the first time since 1999 that 4 nations have been represented in the Roland Garros semifinals and the 8th successive year that a Russian woman has appeared in the last four here  Stosur and Schiavone have broken through the $5 million prize money barrier here.

Stosur has more main draw clay court wins this year than any other woman (19).

Ranking Projection:

Serena Williams is projected to retain the No.1 ranking after Roland Garros (week of June 7, 2010) bringing her career total to 106 weeks at No.1. Serena regained the No.1 spot on November 2, 2009 and during Roland Garros is spending her 104th and 105th weeks there.

While Williams has secured the No.1 ranking, Venus Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Jankovic and Elena Dementieva are all fighting for positions No.2-5.

Wozniacki is projected to rank between No.3-5; the only way she could drop to No.5 would be if Jankovic and Dementieva meet in the final.

Jankovic or Dementieva could climb to No.2 by winning the title; otherwise Venus Williams will remain at No.2.

By reaching the SF, Stosur is projected to climb to No.6, unless Schiavone wins the title. With Dementieva advancing to the SF, No.6 is now the highest Stosur could climb.

Schiavone is projected to make her Top 10 debut and move ahead of Flavia Pennetta to become Italy’s No.1 player; Schiavone could climb to No.7 by reaching the final and No.6 by winning the title.

Schiavone will be making her Top 10 debut at the age of 29 years, 11 months and 15 days (on June 7th), the oldest player to make her Top 10 debut since 1998 when Nathalie Tauziat made her Top 10 debut at 30 years, 2 months, 26 days.

Schiavone will be the 101st player to break into the Top 10 rankings since the inception of the computer rankings (November 3, 1975).

Justine Henin is projected to rise to No.18, that would represent the highest ranking since her return.

With Dinara Safina falling in 1r and Svetlana Kuznetsova losing in 3r, both players will fall out of the Top 10. Safina is projected to drop to No.20 and Kuznetsova to No.19.

Kuznetsova has been ranked in the Top 10 since the week of April 3, 2006, the longest active run of any player currently ranked in the Top 10; that streak will end after Roland Garros. As a result, Jelena Jankovic will become the player that has been ranked inside for the most consecutive weeks; the Serb moved into the Top 10 the week of February 19, 2007.

Entering RG, there were 3 Russian players in the Top 10 (Safina, Kuznetsova, Dementieva). There have been as many as 6 Russians ranked in the Top 10 as the week of August 25, 2008. With Safina’s 1r loss and Kuznetsova’s 3r loss, the number of Russians in the Top 10 is projected to drop to 1 for the first time since August 25, 2003 (Myskina at No.10).

SEMIFINAL MATCH-UPS
[7] Samantha Stosur (AUS) vs. [4] Jelena Jankovic (SRB) – Jankovic leads 3-1
[17] Francesca Schiavone (ITA) vs. [5] Elena Dementieva (RUS) – Dementieva leads 6-4