French Open 2016: Friday Roland Garros Schedule and Bracket Predictions

The semifinals are set at the French Open, with the top seed in both brackets and the top three seeds on the men's side still in the running for the title.

Let's take a look at the schedule and matchups below before breaking down the four contests on Friday:

Court	Time (ET)	Matchup
Philippe-Chatrier Court	7 a.m.	(1) Serena Williams vs. Kiki Bertens
Philippe-Chatrier Court	Not before 9 a.m.	(2) Andy Murray vs. (3) Stan Wawrinka
Suzanne-Lenglen Court	7 a.m.	(4) Garbine Muguruza vs. (21) Samantha Stosur
Suzanne-Lenglen Court	Not before 9 a.m.	(1) Novak Djokovic vs. (13) Dominic Thiem

The incredible run of Kiki Bertens continues. She's eliminated No. 3 seed Angelique Kerber, No. 15 seed Madison Keys and No. 8 seed Timea Bacsinszky, among others, on her journey to the French Open semifinals against Serena Williams.

Is this where the fairy tale ends?

History would suggest so.

Williams has won the only match between the pair at last year's U.S. Open. Oh, and she's also won 21 Grand Slams, including three French Open titles and two of the last three at Roland Garros. And while she's had a relatively easy draw up to this point, she's only dropped one set.

That lone set came against Yulia Putintseva in the quarterfinals on Thursday, when Putintseva won the first set and broke her in the first game of the second. That awoke the dragon, so to speak, and Williams came roaring back to win the next two sets.

"She played unbelievable," Williams said of her opponent, per the Associated Press (via CBC Sports). "And I honestly didn't think I was going to win that in the second set. Somehow I did."

It was nothing unusual to watch Williams battle back, as Chris Fowler of ESPN noted:

Still, Williams showed she was vulnerable in the match. Bertens has played well enough to exploit that vulnerability if Williams isn't on her game on Friday, though if the top seed plays her best, she simply won't lose.

The other women's semifinal is tougher to call. The No. 4 seed, Garbine Muguruza, will face No. 21 seed Samantha Stosur in just their second matchup (Stosur won the only meeting, on clay at the Madrid Open, in 2014).

Muguruza is now in her second straight semifinal this season, though she's yet to win a title this year. Stosur is in her third semifinal of the season and has impressively knocked off No. 11 seed Lucie Safarova and No. 6 seed Simona Halep to reach the semifinals.

Muguruza reached the quarterfinals in Paris last year, so her play at this year's tournament isn't surprising. Stosur has reached three semifinals at Roland Garros and was the tournament's runner-up in 2010, so success in Paris is nothing new for her, either.

As you might have gathered, this very much feels like a coin-flip prediction.  

“Muguruza is tough," former Australian Davis Cup captain Wally Masur told Liam Fitzgibbon of Fox Sports. "She’s a big, strong girl who hugs the baseline. It’s hard to push her around, but I haven’t seen Sam play this well in a long time, if ever.”

In the tougher matchups to call, it's often wise to trust the more experienced player. And Stosur is playing excellent tennis in France. She'll escape with a victory in what should be an even, hard-fought match.

On the men's side, Novak Djokovic has had a fairly uneventful run to the semifinals against Dominic Thiem. He's dropped just one set and brushed aside the best player he's faced thus far—No. 7-seeded Tomas Berdych—with relative ease, though No. 13 seed Thiem is hardly a pushover.

Djokovic has won both meetings between the two, including at this year's Miami Open. And he's desperately seeking his first French Open conquest to complete his career Grand Slam and to also win his fourth straight Grand Slam.

Thiem, on the other hand, has made it past the second round of the French Open for the first time in his career. He's playing excellent tennis, but it would take a brave person to bet against Djokovic on Friday.

The other semifinal between No. 2 seed Andy Murray and No. 3 seed Stan Wawrinka, on the other hand, could be a thriller. Murray holds the slightest of edges in the series, 8-7, though it's Wawrinka who has won the last three meetings between the players.

Wawrinka has also won the only two matches the pair have played on clay, and he just so happens to be the defending champion at Roland Garros. 

And Murray hasn't exactly been crisp in Paris, dropping five sets in total and needing to go the full five sets in his first two matches at the tournament. Wawrinka has dropped four sets himself, though after a shaky opening match he's played better tennis.

The smart money, then, is perhaps on Wawrinka, who has the power to give Murray trouble. If the defending French Open champion is on his game, he's tough to beat, as he proved a year ago. And Murray, despite making the semifinals, does not appear to be at his best.

Look for Wawrinka to advance in the day's top matchup. 

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.