May 31, 2009
Russian Maria Sharapova kept alive her French Open dream on Sunday, moving into the quarterfinals by defeating Li Na of China 6-4 0-6 6-4.
The former world number one, has dropped to 102nd in the WTA rankings after a long spell out with shoulder trouble, has needed three sets to advance from each round, dropped serve twice but broke three times to take the opening set before fading away in the second won 6-4 0-6 6-4 against the Chinese.
Three-times grand slam champion Sharapova took a medical time out to have her left thigh treated, broke decisively in the seventh game before wrapping up the win after Two hours Thirteen minutes on her first match point.
First Set: 6-4 in 48 minutes
In the first set 5 of the 10 games were breaks of serve and Maria broke Li to serve for the set at 5-4 when Li double-faulted on game point. Maria took the set on her third set-point when she hit a powerful backhand to Li and Li hit it long.
Second Set: 0-6 in 29 minutes
Maria dropped her 1st ever set against Li in 5 matches as she lost it 0-6 when she hit the ball out.
Third Set: 6-4 in 56 minutes
Maria battled back from 2-4 in the deciding set to take the next 4 games to power her way to the quarters when Li hit a ball long.
Sharapova will be glad to have survived since she produced eight double faults and 33 unforced errors during a scrappy contest. In the Quarters to be played on Tuesday, Maria will play Twenty seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia twice before and won both matches. Cibulkova e was the first player into the last eight, the Slovakian a convincing 6-2 6-4 winner over 29th seed Agnes Szavay, who dumped out third seed Venus Williams in the previous round. The 2 matches were both on clay in Amelia Island and Rome last The 2 matches were both on clay in Amelia Island and Rome last year.
Cibulkova looked a bag of nerves as she clinched victory on her third match point to reach her first grand slam quarter-final.
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