If Samantha Stosur can get past Sara Errani on Thursday night, the Australian will face either Maria Sharapova or Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in Saturday’s French Open final.

Sharapova outclassed Estonian Kaia Kanepi 6-2 6-3 in Wednesday’s quarter-finals before fourth seed Kvitova eliminated Kazakh qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova 3-6 6-2 6-4 to book a semi-final showdown with the world No.2.

Sharapova, also a semi-finalist in 2007 and 2011, is oozing confidence in her bid to complete a career grand slam in Paris.

“I am happy to be back in the semi-finals. I love coming back here to challenge myself to go further in the tournament,” said Sharapova, who can reclaim the world No.1 spot from Victoria Azarenka if she makes it the title match.

“I won two tournaments coming into Paris in Stuttgart and Rome and they gave me a lot of confidence.

“But every event is different. I am just happy to improve and I know it’ll get tougher from here.”

Kvitova had to battle back from a set down to finally halt the run of Shvedova in the last of the quarter-finals.

“Every point that we played was really tough,” Kvitova said.

“I knew that I had to change my game. It wasn’t easy and I’m really happy that my serve helped me and I played my aggressive game again.”

Shvedova had knocked out defending champion Li Na in the fourth round and would have been the first qualifier to make it to the women’s semi-finals at Roland Garros.

But it was Kvitova who lived to fight another day and the Czech star heads into her semi-final on Thursday trailing Sharapova 3-2 in career meetings.

Their most recent clash came on clay in Rome just last month in Stuttgart, with the Russian prevailing 6-4 7-6 (7-3).