4 women standing

How time flies when you're vicariously enjoying Paris. There are only four women left in the contest, and here is how the semifinals line up:

Dinara Safina vs. Dominika Cibulkova: The world number 1 and top seed is probably still capable of going off the track somewhat, but she has appeared more mentally stable on court lately. Even the shock near-obliteration she took from Victoria Azarenka in the first set of their quarterfinal didn't do any permanent damage to Safina's confidence. Cibulkova, the 20th seed, moves extremely well, and can get back a lot of balls; she will doubtless try to wear Safina down until she makes an error. This tactic will work only if the errors penetrate Safina's psche for any appreciable length of time.

Samantha Stosur vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova: Stosur, the 30th seed, is a very unlikely semifinalist for too many reasons to list here, but she got to the final four by putting on a very impressive display of tennis. She has a huge serve, and--when everything is working right--a very good second serve, too. If the moment doesn't do her in and that serve stays on, she can earn a lot of points over which Kuznetsova will have little control. Stosur puts a lot of spin on the ball, something 7th seed Kuznetsova is more accustomed to giving than getting. Kuznetsova is arguably the best clay player on the tour, however, and--as with Safina--her main job is just to do what she does best and to keep her mental focus intact.