Maria Sharapova reached the last 16 of the French Open on Saturday, but her display against Russian compatriot Alla Kudryavtseva was far from convincing.
PARIS: Maria Sharapova reached the last 16 of the French Open on Saturday, but her display against Russian compatriot Alla Kudryavtseva was far from convincing.
Sharapova won easily enough in the end 6-1, 6-4, but she had to come back from 1-4 down in the second set after her serve once again let her down.
The 20-year-old second seed had two months on the sidelines to recover from a severe bout of tendonitis in her right shoulder and only returned to action at the Istanbul Cup last week.
She says the injury is still bothering her and it showed at times in a wobbly second set in which her serve was broken three times by her unheralded 19-year-old opponent.
Sharapova broke back in the sixth game however and from there she re-discovered her timing and put the match away by winning five games in a row.
She next plays either the experienced Patty Schnyder of Switzerland or newcomer Karin Knapp of Italy.
Also through to the last 16 in the bottom half of the draw were third seed and last year's beaten finalist Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia and rising Serb seventh seed Ana Ivanovic.
German Open winner Ivanovic was a comfortable 6-2, 6-0 winner over Romania's Ioana Raluca Olaru and will next take on the winner of the tie between Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia or Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain.
Former US Open winner Kuznetsova defeated Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-3 and in the fourth round she will play either Shahar Peer of Israel or Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia for a place in the quarter-finals.
Top seed and defending champion Justine Henin of Belgium won through to the last 16 late Friday with a straight sets win over Mara Santangelo of Italy and is lined up to take on Sybille Bammer of Austria on Sunday.
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