Three years after her last appearance on Court Philippe Chatrier, Maria Sharapova returned to the main show court here at the French Open on Saturday to record one of her best victories since beginning her comeback from a 15-month drugs suspension last year.
The world No 30, who is a former champion here, beat Karolina Pliskova 6-2, 6-1 to reach the fourth round, in which she will face the winner of the day’s later meeting between Serena Williams and Julia Goerges.
Pliskova, the world No 6, reached the semi-finals here last year, but the 26-year-old Czech was swept aside by a flood of attacking strokeplay from Sharapova, who needed just 59 minutes to complete her victory.
“I thought I did a really good job of being aggressive on the return and giving her different looks,” Sharapova said afterwards.“I was solid. I played smart. I think I did the right things, I was aggressive on the break points, I went for it. I took the match rather than her giving it to me.”
She added: “Roland Garros presents maybe more challenges than other [Grand Slam tournaments] with the weather, with the schedule. You just have to come forward and face it. I think I improved quite a lot in this match from my first two rounds. I had to. I didn't really have a choice against a player like her.”
The smile on the face of the 31-year-old Russian at the end told you everything about what this victory meant to her. She has been troubled by injuries at different stages of her comeback and arrived in Europe for the clay-court season struggling for form.
“I’ve been able to turn that around a little bit,” she said. “I’ve been able to put myself in this position of playing better tennis. That's what I continue to work for, of course. You don't put those hours on the back courts in Bradenton-fricking-Florida just to show up at events like this and not bring it.”
Petra Kvitova had always insisted that she should not be regarded as one of the favourites to win this year’s tournament and her lengthy winning run on clay finally came to an end.
Thirteen successive victories had seen the 28-year-old Czech win titles in Prague and Madrid and reach the third round here, but the two-times Wimbledon champion was beaten 7-6, 7-6 by Anett Kontaveit, who has been making huge strides of her own this year.
The 22-year-old Estonian has beaten, among others, Caroline Wozniacki, Angelique Kerber and Venus Williams during the current clay-court season and is now enjoying her best run here. She will next take on Sloane Stephens, the US Open champion, who beat Camila Giorgi 4-6, 6-1, 8-6.
“Anett played great tennis today and didn’t really give me anything,” Kvitova said afterwards. “She returned pretty well, though I didn't really serve as well as I had wanted.
“Sometimes you have a good day and sometimes you have a bad day - and for sure today wasn’t a good day.But I tried everything that I could. I really left everything out there. I'm pretty tired. Even though I didn't play great tennis today, I was still there trying.
“I couldn’t really imagine myself playing so well on the clay, so I’m very proud of myself. I didn’t really think that I would be able to do what I did, winning two titles, playing good tennis here.It was a great clay season.”
Kvitova, who returned to competition here last year after the horrific knife attack which she feared might have ended her career, is already back up to No 8 in the world rankings and will now head to Britain for one of her favourite parts of the year.
“I hope that the grass will be great as always, though Wimbledon last year wasn’t really great for me,” Kvitova said. “I’ll I try to do better.”
Garbine Muguruza, the reigning Wimbledon champion and a former champion here, eased into the fourth round with a crushing 6-0, 6-2 victory over a former runner-up, Sam Stosur. The Australian won only 10 points in the opening set and was 2-0 down in the second before she finally got on the board.
Muguruza, who now plays the Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko, said afterwards: “I had a tough opponent today. She’s a Grand Slam champion and a former finalist here. I knew that if I didn’t play my best tennis it would be very hard.”
