[1]Top seed and defending champion Roger Federer showed no mercy for best friend Stanislas Wawrinka on Sunday when he handed his Olympic gold medal-winning teammate a 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 French Open thumping.
World number one Federer now faces Robin Soderling, who registered a 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 win over Croatian 10th seed Marin Cilic.
In the women’ singles, it was curtains for second seed Venus Williams, who crashed to Russia’s Nadia Petrova in the fourth round, as four-time champion Justine Henin edged a tight battle with Maria Sharapova.
Williams, a runner-up here in 2002, became the biggest casualty of the tournament so far when she lost 6-3, 6-4 to Petrova, the 19th seed, on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Williams spurned two break points in the first set and Petrova made her pay for her profligacy by converting one of the two break points that came her way to take a one-set lead.
A netted forehand from Petrova, twice a semi-finalist, gave Williams an early break of serve in the second set but the Russian broke back and then broke again to take a 4-3 lead.
The Russian was 5-3 and 30-0 up on Williams’ serve when she appeared to lose her nerve, miscuing a straightforward smash and netting a forehand, but she recovered to whip a forehand past the American on her first match point.
Henin displayed all her trademark grit to see off fellow former world number one Sharapova, hitting back from 0-2 and 0-40 down in the last set to claim a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory that takes her into round four.
Federer was barely troubled by his compatriot, easing to a fifth career win in six clashes in five minutes short of two hours.
Federer has reached the quarter-finals without losing a set, and is widely expected once again to be facing Rafael Nadal in the final next weekend, but he was refusing to get carried away by his smooth progress.
Russian 11th seed Mikhail Youzhny also reached the quarter-finals when his French opponent Jo-Wilfried Tsonga retired injured. Youzhny won the first set 6-2 before eighth-seeded Tsonga quit after being treated for an injured groin.
In the other women’s matches, Danish third seed Caroline Wozniacki, 19, came through an engaging three-hour scrap with Italy’s 14th seed Flavia Pennetta to reach a quarterfinal showdown with another Italian, Francesca Schiavone.
Wozniacki led 4-2 in the first set but allowed Pennetta to battle back to lead 5-4 and had to see off a set point before winning a first-set tie-break when the Italian scuttled a backhand into the net.
Pennetta levelled the match by winning a tense second-set tie-break but the nine-year age gap between the players finally told in the decider, as Wozniacki broke for a 4-2 lead before closing out a 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (4/7), 6-2 victory.
Dementieva, a beaten finalist here in 2004, swept into the quarter-finals with an emphatic 6-1, 6-3 victory over South African qualifier Chanelle Scheepers. — AFP
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Paes in quarters
Paris, May 30: Defending champions Leander Paes and Lucas Dlouhy stormed into the quarterfinals of the French Open doubles event after a straight set victory over Santiago Gonzalez and Travis RettenMayer here on Sunday.
The third seeded Indo-Czech pair defeated their unseeded opponents — Mexican Gonzalez and American RettenMayer — 6-3, 6-4 in 82-minute at Roland Garros here.
Meanwhile, Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi’s doubles campaign was cut short in the second round with a straight-set defeat against local pair of Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra.
The Indo-Pak pair lost the men’s doubles clash 5-7, 3-6 to the 15th seed local favourites. — PTI
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