By Erik Gudris | Friday, January 31, 2014

Top seed Maria Sharapova enjoyed an easy afternoon as she posted a straight sets win to reach the semifinals of the Open GDF SUEZ event in Paris, France.

Taking on No. 8 seed Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium in the quarterfinals, Sharapova only needed 69 minutes to earn a 6-2, 6-2 win.

Waiting for Sharapova next is Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who had a tougher time of things in her quarterfinal meeting against No. 4 seed Angelique Kerber. Despite dropping the first set, Pavlyuchenkova took the second set 6-3.

The final set proved a close contest with the Russian earning a break advantage late in the set that allowed her to serve for it while up 6-5. But Kerber broke back to love and thus forced a final set tiebreak. Pavlyuchenkova took control midway through the breaker and eventually closed out the 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(3) victory.

"I just tried to stay calm and keep playing my game," Pavlyuchenkova said to WTA.com. "After I lost the first set I was a bit more relaxed even, so it was easier to focus on my game and my technique, and on every point. I think I had too much emotion in the first set, but from the second set I felt much better."

Sharapova leads the head to head versus Pavlyuchenkova 1-0 with their only meeting being at Cincinnati back in 2010.

Cornet Outlasts Petkovic in Three Set Battle

Local favorite Alize Cornet of France advanced into the semifinals after a hard fought win over Andrea Petkovic of Germany. Things look to be all in favor of Petkovic who stormed out to a 5-1 lead in the opening set. But Cornet battled back and eventually claimed the set in a tense tiebreak 7-6(6).

Petkovic recovered to take the second set 7-5 despite having to fight off three match points against her. But with the crowd on her side, Cornet managed to break Petkovic in the final game to close out the 7-6(6), 5-7, 6-3 win after over three hours.

Cornet will next face the winner of the Sara Errani versus Elina Svitolina quarterfinal to be played later tonight.