Iga Swiatek to meet Karolina Muchova in French Open final

Iga Swiatek staved off the challenge of an inspired Beatriz Haddad Maia to advance to her third French Open final, where she will defend her title against world number 43 Karolina Muchova.

The two-time Roland-Garros champion survived a few scares and took two hours and 10 minutes to post a 6-2 7-6[7] win over the 14th seed, who was the first woman to represent Brazil in the French Open semi-finals in the Open Era.

Haddad Maia had triumphed over Swiatek in their only previous meeting in Toronto last year, and the 27-year-old laid down a marker straight away on Thursday with a break in the opening game.

However, Swiatek broke back straight away and silenced the Brazilian contingent in the crowd as she found her stride, winning four games on the spin to take the first set with aplomb.

The Pole was again forced to do it the hard way in the second set, breaking back for 3-3 after losing her serve in the third game, and Haddad Maia squandered another four break points prior to a pivotal tie-breaker.

The 14th seed had the upper hand and brought up one set point at 6-5, but she failed to capitalise, and Swiatek worked the cross-court forehand to perfection to advance on her second match point.

Swiatek is yet to drop a set en route to the showpiece event, and the world number one will also maintain her place at the summit of the WTA standings thanks to an upset earlier in the day.

She will face unseeded Karolina Muchova of Czech Republic on Saturday.