Maria Sharapova won her way into her first ever Roland Garros semi-final after beating fellow Russian Anna Chakvetadze 6-3 6-4 at the French Open on Tuesday.

The current US Open champion is still on course for her first victory at the famous Parisian tournament after the straight sets victory. Now only Serbian Ana Ivanovic stands between her and her fourth Grand Slam final.

The first set was won thanks to the inconsistency of her opponent. Chakvetadze’s serve proved extremely erratic and her decision making on key shots was poor. The telling statistic is that Sharapova took one of her two break points in the first set, while Chakvetadze wasted all four of hers.

It got worse for her in the second, as she was broken by Sharapova in the first game of the set. That loss motivated her, though, and the number nine seed began to use her excellent backhand to devastating effect, turning the set around to lead 2-1.

Sharapova found it hard to cope with her backhand, but managed to hold serve and stay in touch.

As great as Chakvetadze’s backhand was, however, her forehand let her down on numerous occasions, not least when she lost another good chance to break at 4-4 by shanking a simple shot into the stands.

Sharapova took the next game and never looked back.