Defending champion Maria Sharapova reached the French Open last-16 on Friday although she appeared on the verge of tears at the end of her straight-sets win over Samantha Stosur. The world number two made the fourth round for the 11th time with a 6-3, 6-4 win over the 26th seeded Australian. It was the Russian's 15th win in 17 matches against Stosur who she defeated in a three-set Paris marathon last year.
Sharapova admitted that her continuing struggles with a cold, which saw her coughing for large parts of the match, contributed to her emotional state at the end. "I have never felt like that on the court playing a Grand Slam, so this is kind of new," said the 28-year-old. "I'm just trying to do the best that I can with the circumstances." Sharapova, also the champion in 2012 and runner-up in 2013, goes on to face Czech 13th seed Lucie Safarova for a place in the quarter-finals.
Both 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 runner-up 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 Australian's fourth double fault of the tie, proved the decisive breakthrough.
Safarova made the fourth round for the third time by beating big-serving German Sabine Lisicki 6-3, 7-6 (7/2). Sharapova has a 4-1 record over the 28-year-old Czech whose only win came in the pair's first meeting in Madrid five years ago. However, their last clash in Stuttgart in 2014 only went in the Russian's favour after three tiebreak sets. Former champion Ana Ivanovic reached the last 16 in just 53 minutes. The Serbian seventh seed, the 2008 winner in Paris, triumphed over 18-year-old Croatian opponent Donna Vekic 6-0, 6-3.
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 2-1 in the second set. Makarova reached the last-16 for the second time by defeating doubles partner and best friend Elena Vesnina 6-2, 6-4. Alize Cornet, the 29th seeded Frenchwoman, needed two and a half hours to defeat 33-year-old Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in a match scarred by 85 unforced errors. Svitolina defeated fellow former French Open junior champion Annika Beck of Germany 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. Spanish 21st seed Garbine Muguruza, who beat Serena Williams on her way to the quarter-finals in 2014, knocked out German 11th seed Angelique Kerber 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.
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