Stosur could grab top-eight seeding at Roland Garros

AUSTRALIA'S Samantha Stosur may earn a spot among the top eight seeds at this month's French Open if her recent purple patch continues.

The Queenslander made it 10 wins on the trot when she defeated China's Li Na 6-3, 6-3 in the quarter-finals of Stuttgart's WTA tournament to set-up a semi-final against Russian qualifier Anna Lapushchenkova.

The victory over Na means Stosur is set to move up to ninth on the WTA rankings and a chance of a top-eight seeding at Roland Garros.

''It's great that I will be No. 9 no matter what now, so if I can find myself inside the top eight that would be a bonus for Roland Garros,'' she said. ''If it doesn't, it won't be the end of the world. I'll still be in the top 16 seeds and obviously the higher I can get, the better.''

The 26-year-old, who won the Charleston tournament this month and then both of her Federation Cup rubbers against the Ukraine, was surprised by her low error count in the win over Na, claiming it was a lot harder than the scoreline suggested.

''It was quite a tough match and hard to get a rhythm,'' Stosur said. ''I didn't realise I had made so few errors [seven], so that is a good result. Any match where you go through and don't drop serve is a good day.''

Lapushchenkova, ranked 138th in the world, beat Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7-1), 1-6, 6-1 and is the lowest ranked player to ever reach the semi-finals.

In Friday's other quarter-finals, Russian second seed Dinara Safina was beaten by Shahar Peer of Israel, who will play Justine Henin after the Belgian former world No. 1 beat Jelena Jankovic of Serbia.