PARIS – The rain finally held off at the French Open, so Petra Kvitova rained down aces instead.Six of them, taking her tournament-leading tally to 24, as the two-time Wimbledon champion reached her first semifinal at Roland Garros since 2012 and first at any Grand Slam since her run to the final of the 2019 Australian Open.On the other end of the seventh-seeded Czech player’s 6-3, 6-3 victory was Laura Siegemund.
The first set of the unseeded German's first Grand Slam quarterfinal flashed by in a blur of left-handed serves that she often couldn't reach or capitalize on and an array of powerful groundstrokes and feathered volleys she had no answer to.Kvitova hit all six of her aces in that first set and never faced a break point.