French Open: Emotional Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic into fourth round

Paris Defending champion Maria Sharapova reached the French Open last16 on Friday although she appeared on the verge of tears at the end of her straightsets win over Samantha Stosur The world number two made the fourth round for the 11th time with a 63 64 win over the 26th seeded AustralianRussiarsquos Maria Sharapova celebrates a point during her 64 63 62 win over Australiarsquos Samantha Stosur in the third round of the French Open at Roland Garros yesterday PicsAFPIt was the Russians 15th win in 17 matches against Stosur who she defeated in a threeset Paris marathon last year I knew it would be a tough match today said the 28yearold Sharapova But when I come out on to this court all the great memories come flooding back for me Sharapova also the champion in 2012 and runnerup in 2013 goes on to face Czech 13th seed Lucie Safarova for a place in the quarterfinalsBoth Sharapova and Stosur struggled in the windy cold conditions on Court Philippe Chatrier The first set featured five breaks of serve and just four winners for Sharapova who also suffered five double faults But 2010 runnerup Stosur was undone by 19 unforced errors in the opener and 34 over the entire match One break in the seventh game of the second set courtesy of the Australians fourth double fault of the tie proved the decisive breakthroughSafarova made the fourth round for the third time by beating bigserving German Sabine Lisicki 63 76 72 Sharapova has a 41 record over the 28yearold Czech whose only win came in the pairs first meeting in Madrid five years ago However their last clash in Stuttgart in 2014 only went in the Russians favour after three tiebreak sets Former champion Ana Ivanovic reached the last 16 in just 53 minutesThe Serbian seventh seed the 2008 winner in Paris triumphed over 18yearold Croatian opponent Donna Vekic 60 63 Ivanovic won the first seven games before Vekic the world number 165 and playing in the third round of a major for the first time stopped the rot and broke for 21 in the second setBut that was as good as it got for the teenager as Ivanovic watched by German football star boyfriend Bastian Schweinsteiger swept into a fourth round clash against ninthseeded Russian Ekaterina Makarova After my first two matches I have really started to get a little bit of feeling and groove said the Serb who had to come back from losing the opening set in her first two rounds in Paris When you know you are working the right direction it always gets resultsMakarova reached the last16 for the second time by defeating doubles partner and best friend Elena Vesnina 62 64 I hate having to play my best friend admitted the 26yearold lefthander Its not a good feelingAlize Cornet the 29th seeded Frenchwoman needed two and a half hours to defeat 33yearold Croatian Mirjana LucicBaroni 46 63 75 in a match scarred by 85 unforced errors LucicBaroni made her Paris debut back in 1999 and had made the last32 by putting out thirdseeded Simona Halep in the second round Cornet who knocked Serena Williams out of Wimbledon last year will be playing in the second week in Paris for the first timeIt was difficult she hits the ball very hard said Cornet I had a terrible start but I came back with courage Its magical Cornet next takes on Elina Svitolina the 19th seeded Ukrainian who has reached the fourth round of a major for the first timeSvitolina defeated fellow former French Open junior champion Annika Beck of Germany 63 26 64 Spanish 21st seed Garbine Muguruza who beat Serena Williams on her way to the quarterfinals in 2014 knocked out German 11th seed Angelique Kerber 46 62 62 She could face compatriot and doubles partner Carla Suarez Navarro if the eighth seed beats Italian veteran Flavia Pennetta later Friday