Garbine Muguruza thrashed Maria Sharapova 6-2, 6-1 to reach the French Open semi-finals on Wednesday, condemning the Russian to her worst Grand Slam defeat in more than six years.
Sharapova, playing at Roland Garros for the first time since 2015, suffered her most one-sided defeat at the Slams since a 6-3, 6-0 loss to Victoria Azarenka in the 2012 Australian Open final.
"I am very pleased to be in another final in Paris," said Muguruza who has yet to drop a set in the tournament.
"I was up against a great player so I had make sure I brought my best tennis."
Sharapova, missed the 2016 tournament because of a doping ban and last year after she was refused a wild card, was broken six times, committed 27 unforced errors and won just five points on her own serve in the second set.
It was just her fifth loss in 25 Grand Slam quarter-finals.
Muguruza pounced on an error-plagued Sharapova to lead 4-0 with a double break.
Sharapova never recovered from serving up three double faults in the first game. By the end of the first set, the five-time major winner had won just eight points against Muguruza’s serves and failed to carve out a single break point.
Muguruza only hit five winners in the opener which was more than enough against the erratic Russian who reached the quarter-finals for the first time in three years when old rival Serena Williams handed her an injury-enforced walkover.
Sharapova, 31, was broken in the opening game of the second set which she immediately retrieved.
However, it was just a brief respite as 24-year-old Wimbledon champion Muguruza claimed a quick double break for 4-1, backed up by a hold for 5-1.
It was all over in the next game when Sharapova sent another backhand out wide.
Halep fights back
After Angelique Kerber's final backhand bounced out of bounds on Court Suzanne lenglen, Simona Halep turned to her box and pointed to her head.
Coming from a player whose mental strength has often been questioned, the gesture spoke volume.
The top-ranked player indeed showed solid nerves to turn things up after a really bad start in her French Open quarterfinal on Wednesday. After 2 hours and 14 minutes, Halep rallied past the 12th-seeded Kerber 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-2 and reached the French Open semifinals for the third time.
Halep got off a sluggish start and trailed 4-0 in the opening set. She fought back to force a tiebreaker but briefly lost her focus to drop the set after losing five consecutive points.
"After the first set I just stayed strong, I did not give up at all," Halep said. "I missed a lot at the beginning of the match. I tried to do too much. Then I changed a little bit of tactics and it worked."
Halep broke at the start of the second set and then Kerber dropped her serve again in the ninth game. In the decider, Halep came to the net more often to finish points and opened up a 4-1 lead. She broke again in the eighth game to seal the match.
Halep is still chasing her first Grand Slam title after several near-misses. She led Jelena Ostapenko by a set and 3-0 in last year's final at Roland Garros, but then fell apart and eventually lost to the unseeded latvian in her second French Open final.
Halep next faces third-seeded Garbine Muguruza, who thrashed Maria Sharapova 6-2, 6-1 in a matchup of past French Open champions.
In Thursday's other semi-final, US Open champion Sloane Stephens will take on fellow American Madison Keys in a repeat of the 2017 final at Flushing Meadows.