SERENA Williams laughed at herself, screamed at herself, violently shook her uncooperative racket and cocked it over her head, threatening to fling it before she changed her mind.

Williams finally found a way out of her funk - and into the French Open semifinals.

She came from behind in the third set Tuesday and advanced to Roland Garros’ final four for the first time since 2003 when she defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.

Williams had been beaten the last four times she reached the French Open quarterfinals, most recently in 2010. The 15-time Grand Slam champion, who is ranked No. 1, won her only Roland Garros title in 2002.

Against Kuznetsova, Williams overcame an inconsistent serve, erratic groundstrokes and a 2-love deficit in the final set, winning five consecutive games and then closing the victory with a forehand winner and a scream.

Williams is the first American woman to reach the French Open semifinals since Jennifer Capriati in 2004.

Her opponent tomorrow will be 2012 runner-up Sara Errani, who advanced by beating No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska 6-4, 7-6 (6). Williams is 5-0 against Errani.

Since losing in the first round a year ago at Roland Garros, Williams is 72-3, including titles at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the London Olympics and the season-ending WTA Championships. She’s 21-0 this year on clay.

In the men’s singles also played Tuesday, home-boy, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, upset second seed, Roger Federer, to keep his nation’s hopes alive of a first men’s champion for 30 years.

Tsonga, the sixth seed, won 7-5 6-3 6-3 to reach his first semifinal at Roland Garros, where he will face David Ferrer.

And expectation will continue to rise as the 28-year-old from Le Mans moves closer to emulating Yannick Noah’s victory of 1983.

Federer, 31, made the better start to their quarter-final with a break in the fifth game when he fired a forehand winner across the Frenchman.

That same shot let him down in game eight, however, and he found himself pegged back to 4-4 and struggling to keep down the error count.

The Swiss fought off three set points from 0-40 in game 12, the second with a beautiful flicked backhand, but he fired a forehand long moments later to hand over the set.

Tsonga had just three wins in 12 previous matches against Federer, but the confidence flowed through him at the start of the second and Federer simply could not find any rhythm.

He found himself 0-40 down again at the start of the second set and there was no comeback this time as a wayward backhand gave Tsonga a break he would not give up.  Federer was playing to the Frenchman’s weaker backhand side and found it in rare form, three magnificent winners getting the home crowd roaring as Tsonga raced to a two-set lead.

A wild double-fault at the start of the third looked like the end for Federer but he immediately recovered the break with a forehand winner dragged down the line.

There was to be no great resurgence from the 17-time Grand Slam champion though.

A poor smash let Tsonga back into the game at 3-3 and the Frenchman grabbed the decisive break with a backhand that leapt off the net cord and hit the struggling Swiss.

Federer hardly lacks support in Paris, but when he fired over the baseline on Tsonga’s second match point the Chatrier stadium reverberated to the sound of “Tsonga! Tsonga!”