French Open 2017 Women's Semifinal: TV Schedule, Start Time, Live-Stream Info

The French Open women's semifinals are now set after No. 2 seed Karolina Pliskova defeated No. 28 Caroline Garcia, 7-6 (3), 6-4, and No. 3 Simona Halep knocked off No. 5 Elina Svitolina, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-0, on Wednesday.

The women's semifinals are scheduled for no earlier than 9 a.m. ET on Thursday, with Jelena Ostapenko taking on No. 30 Timea Bacsinszky first on the Philippe-Chatrier Court and Pliskova vs. Halep to follow.

The matches will be broadcast on the Tennis Channel starting at 9 a.m. ET and on NBC at 11 a.m. ET. NBC Sports Live will also stream the event.

The two semifinals are truly a contrast in expectation. While both Ostapenko and Bacsinszky are both upstarts, Pliskova and Halep were among the favorites coming into the tournament. 

Ostapenko is perhaps the story of the tournament, riding an aggressive style of play to the semifinals. On Tuesday, she eliminated Caroline Wozniacki by smashing 38 winners (to just six for Wozniacki) and winning 15 of 16 net points. Despite losing the first set and committing a whopping 50 unforced errors, Ostapenko still moved on.

"Caroline is a tough opponent; I knew I had to stay aggressive," Ostapenko noted after the match, per BBC Sport. "I lost it sometimes but I found my game."

That matchup between Ostapenko and Bacsinszky is intriguing on a number of fronts, as Brad Gilbert of ESPN noted:

The Pliskova/Halep matchup, meanwhile, is intriguing given the clash of the top two seeds remaining in the tournament. With no Serena Williams in play, the field is wide-open.

Halep leads their head-to-head matchup 4-2, though the pair split the four matches they contested in 2016. None of their previous contests have been on clay.

Halep nearly didn't make the semifinals, as she found herself down a set and staring at a 5-1 deficit in the second against Svitolina. But a bit of fatalism actually turned things around for Halep, as she said after the match, per WTATennis.com:

"She was dominating the match. I just sat down at 5-2, I said that the match is lost. So I did nothing to change something, to change the rhythm, that's it. It's over. And then I started to feel more relaxed—maybe because I thought it's finished—and I changed the rhythm. I put some high balls. I just tried to make her move more, to open the court, and it came. I don't know how, but it was really good."

"But I believed that it's gonna come, it's gonna turn something around, and that's it. I'm just happy. I am not thinking about how it was. I just take the fight thing, that I was fighting till the end, and I enjoy."

Pliskova, meanwhile, has battled her least favorite surface, clay, to find herself one match away from a final.

"So far still before this tournament, I was struggling on clay with almost everything," Pliskova admitted, per Julien Pretot of Reuters. "Didn't have my weapons on my side, and the movement was terrible."

"I don't think it's better, but somehow I'm just winning," she added.

That makes Halep—who is very good on clay—the favorite. Before her epic comeback against Svitolina, Halep hadn't dropped a set at Roland Garros. Even Pliskova admitted Halep has the upper hand.

"I'm playing against somebody who I would say is one of the best girls on clay," she said.

She continued, "Coming into this tournament, there were a few people who told me, 'You have to be in the final to be No. 1.' I was like, 'There is no chance I make the final here.'"