Roger Federer's pursuit of an elusive Roland Garros crown gathered momentum with a 2-6 6-2 6-3 6-4 quarter-final win over Chilean Fernando Gonzalez yesterday.
Next up for the Swiss world number one will be Gael Monfils, who became the first Frenchman to reach the last four since Sebastien Grosjean in 2001 with a 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-1 win over Spanish fifth seed David Ferrer.
Dinara Safina again tottered on the brink of elimination before she salvaged her French Open dreams to reach the semi-finals for the first time after a 4-6 7-6 6-0 win over fellow Russian Elena Dementieva.
Safina advanced to an all-Russian last-four date with fourth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova who overcame Estonian Kaia Kanepi 7-5 6-2.
Doing things the easy way is not a mantra known to Safina and for the second match in succession, the Russian produced a stirring comeback from a set and 5-2 down, saved a match point and then took pleasure in trampling all over her hapless victim.
"It's not easy to come back every time because once it's going to be too late," a grinning Safina said.
"But impossible is nothing," she added, adopting the slogan of a famous clothing sponsor.
Kuznetsova managed to avoid any high drama. Kanepi opted to contest her first grand slam quarter-final wearing sunglasses but it was not long before she was dazzled by the Russian's charge towards victory.
Kuznetsova's win over Kanepi guaranteed for the second grand slam running, Russia and Serbia will do battle for the honours.
With Ana Ivanovic contesting the other semi-final against fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic, both Eastern European nations will be represented in the women's showpiece match on Saturday. In January Russian Maria Sharapova had overwhelmed Ivanovic in the Australian Open final.
If Safina is one to believe in omens, she would do well to read up on her brother Marat's run to the Australian Open title.
Three years ago Safin had saved a match point in the semi-final against Federer and had gone on to lift the Norman Brookes Cup.
Yesterday, Federer extended his unique record of reaching 16 successive grand slam semis by handing Gonzalez his first claycourt defeat in 2008.
After appearing to move in slow motion in the opening set, Federer put on his skates to whizz past the Chilean dasher.