Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova continued her fairytale run in Paris by dominating Slovenia’s Tamara Zidansek to set up a final meeting with fellow first-time finalist Barbora Krejcikova.

Both Pavlyuchenkova and Zidansek were playing a Grand Slam semifinal for the first time but it was 31st seed Pavlyuchenkova, 29, who rose to the occasion with a 7-5 6-3 victory on the Paris clay.

She will play fellow first-time finalist Krejcikova in the final after the Czech outlasted Greece’s Maria Sakkari in a classic match in the other semifinal.

“I don’t know what to think because I’m so tired but so happy. It is so emotional,” Pavlyuchenkova said in her on-court interview.

In the other semifinal, Czech Krejcikova showed incredible sprit to beat Sakkari in a classic match and reach her first Grand Slam final.

Krejcikova, 25, won 7-5 4-6 9-7 with her fifth match point in a dramatic match lasting three hours.

Krejcikova, a former doubles world number one, thought she had won earlier in the final game but had a line call wrongly overruled by the umpire.

It is the first time since 1978 – and only the second time in the Open era – that a Grand Slam women’s singles tournament has had four semi-final debutants.