La Dolce Vita for Sara Errani

Qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova is still in the singles draw and could still be the most unlikely semi finalist at this year’s French Open but as it stands now that honour goes to Italian Sara Errani.

While no one was paying attention, Errani has scripted one of the better seasons on the WTA Tour this year. The diminutive Italian reached her first Grand Slam quarter final in Australia in January and then went on a tear, winning three successive titles on clay – albeit the smaller WTA events in South America, moving from 45 in the rankings to 24. A better reflection is her position at no. 9 in the race to the WTA Tour Championships (which counts points only since the start of the year).

Errani has also been part of one of the top doubles teams in 2012 – partnering with fellow Italian Roberta Vinci to pick up 5 WTA titles since January and cracking the top 10 in doubles.

Coming into the French Open, many picked her as a dark horse to look out for and Errani has gone from strength to strength in Paris. After beating former champions Ana Ivanovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova, Errani scored another first on Tuesday, beating a top 10 player for the first time in her career.

Errani had failed 28 times in the past against top 10 opponents but on Tuesday against Angelique Kerber, who has had a meteoric rise of her own in the last nine months, Errani finally broke that jinx – beating the German 6-3, 7-6 to enter her first ever Grand Slam semi final.

Talking about what has changes she has made this year, Errani told the press, “A big change for me really was the racquet.(changing to Babolat). It makes me feel much better on the court, like I have more power and am not too different from the other players in terms of power and those things. But also physically I worked very hard in the winter – I was doing that every winter, though, so maybe it’s just a mix of everything that’s helping right now.”

Errani will now become the top ranked Italian player in the world – overtaking Francesca Schiavone, who has scripted her own love affair with the Parisian clay courts in the last few years. But Schiavone lost early this year – which means it will now fall on Errani’s shoulders if Italy is to have a finalist for the third consecutive year.

Her next opponent will be the US Open champion Samantha Stosur, who she has not beaten in five previous meetings. “She’s an amazing player. I played against her in Rome last tournament and it was a tough match,” Errani said. “But I’m here because I’m playing well. I just want to think about that – I will fight and try to play my best on Thursday.”

Errani may not have the flair of Schiavone’s game or her charisma off it, but she’s been winning an awful lot lately and that’s what ultimately counts.