Paris, June 2: Maria Sharapova set up a potential last 16 clash with Serena Williams, if she wins against Julia Goerges, by crushing sixth seed Karolina Pliskova 6-2, 6-1 in third round encounter of the French Open tennis tournament here, Saturday. Garbine Muguruza also reached the last 16 with a comfortable 6-0, 6-2 win over Australia’s Samantha Stosur.
The five-time Grand Slam winner Sharapova produced one of her best performances since returning from a doping ban, cruising to a totally one-sided win in her first match on Court Philippe Chatrier after three years.
A fired-up Sharapova powered 18 winners past her fellow former World No.1 Pliskova, with the Czech never threatening any resistance in a match that lasted just 59 minutes.
Sharapova who had struggled on serve in her opening wins over Richel Hogenkamp and Donna Vekic, and was broken in the very first game of the match. But the 30th-ranked Russian utterly dominated the rest of the match against her passive opponent.
She showed guile as well as power too, bringing up match point with a perfect backhand drop shot, perhaps sending a warning to Serena in the process.
Meanwhile, Petra Kvitova’s hot streak on clay ended in a disappointing fashion as the Czech lost 6-7(6-8), 6-7(4-7) to Anett Kontaveit in a delayed third round match.
Kvitova, one of seven women’s Grand Slam champions in action Saturday, was edged out in a tight tussle snapping a 13-match winning run.
The eighth seed began in confident fashion against the Estonian she beat on the way to the Madrid title last month, but a 3-1 lead turned into a 5-3 deficit.
Kvitova recovered to take the opener into a tie-break but Kontaveit, herself in fine form on clay, edged it 8-6. Kontaveit rallied from 2-4 in the second set but squandered two match points when serving at 5-4 missing two regulation forehands and Kvitova dug in to level at 5-5. The 25th seed served for the match again at 6-5 but faltered once more.
She received a gift in the tie-break though when Kvitova slammed a smash long at 3-5 and although Kontaveit double-faulted on her first match point she sealed her first career win over the twice Wimbledon champion on the next one.
In other match, Spanish third seed Muguruza, the 2016 Roland Garros winner here and the reigning Wimbledon champion, fired 15 winners past Stosur, the 34-year-old 2010 runner-up and former US Open champion. After wrapping up the first set in just 25 minutes, Stosur only got on the board in the third game of the second.
The Spaniard will face Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Slovakian 19th seed Magdalena Rybarikova. Tsurenko has now reached the last 16 here for the first time, equalling her best run at a Slam at the 2016 US Open.