YES! Maria Sharapova celebrates a winning shot during her victory over Klara Zakopalova yesterday at the French Open. (Getty Images)
PARIS — Despite tumbling to the clay and struggling with her serve, Maria Sharapova moved closer to her first French Open title by reaching the quarterfinals with a ragged 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2 victory yesterday over unseeded Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic.
In the third set, Sharapova occasionally clutched at or flexed her right wrist.
On a windy, rainy afternoon, when both players slipped during points, the second-seeded Sharapova finished with 12 double-faults and was broken nine times, three of them when she was serving for the match. But she broke the 44th-ranked Zakopalova 12 times, including the final game.
“It was,” Sharapova summed up, “a good test for me.”
Sharapova’s next opponent is No. 23 Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, who defeated unseeded Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands, 6-1, 4-6, 6-0.
Asked whether she thinks she can beat three-time major champion Sharapova, Kanepi replied: “If I play well, of course. Why not?”
Defending champion Li Na was upset by Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan, an eyeglasses-wearing doubles specialist ranked 142nd in singles who needed to go through qualifying rounds to enter the main draw.
Shvedova dropped to her knees after taking the last 10 games to eliminate the seventh-seeded Li 3-6, 6-2, 6-0.
Rafael Nadal’s pursuit of a record seventh French Open title rolled on with another rout, this one a 6-2, 6-0, 6-0 victory over his pal, Juan Monaco of Argentina, who was seeded 13th and has won five clay-court titles.
But Nadal is 49-1 for his career at the French Open and might be better than ever. He’s lost a total of 19 games so far, the fewest through four completed matches at Roland Garros since Guillermo Vilas’ 16 games in 1982.