Ivanovic to meet Svitolina as rain rips up schedule
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FORMER champion Ana Ivanovic returned to the quarterfinals of the French Open for the first time since her triumph at Roland Garros seven years ago after beating ninth-seeded Russian Ekaterina Makarova 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 yesterday.
Ivanovic will face 19th-seeded Elina Svitolina, who overcame strong resistance from local hope Alize Cornet to reach her first grand slam quarterfinal with a 6-2, 7-6 (9) win.
For the first time this year play was disrupted by rain, with both matches suspended for 2 hours, 40 minutes before midday, and players had to deal with gusts of wind after play resumed.
The seventh-seeded Ivanovic, who won the French Open the year after losing in the final, last made the quarterfinals of a major at the Australian Open in 2014. “Amazing really. To be honest, coming in to the tournament I didn’t expect it at all,” the Serb said.
Playing on Court Suzanne Lenglen and watched again by German World Cup winning football star Bastian Schweinsteiger, Ivanovic made up for her lack of consistency in the second set with an aggressive display in the decider and closed out the match with a big forehand, her 30th winner of the match.
A nervous Cornet was off to a bad start in her fourth-round match against Svitolina on center court, trailing 0-3 after dropping her serve twice when their match was suspended after 21 minutes. The rain gave her the chance to refocus in the locker room but she lost the first six points when play resumed.
In a match featuring 12 breaks of serves, Cornet did not go down without a fight and saved five match points before a final backhand out of bounds sealed her fate.
The 29th-seeded Frenchwoman lost her temper near the end, remonstrating with the umpire over a shot that was called out in the 11th game of the second set. Cornet complained to the umpire, saying “you look in my eyes and you know it” was in. She also dared the umpire to “give me a warning after you stole me a point”.
Svitolina, seeded 19, is only the second Ukrainian woman to reach a grand slam quarter-final after Kateryna Bondarenko made the last eight at the 2009 US Open. It was Svitolina’s first win over Cornet in three meetings and the result ended French hopes in the women’s singles for another year.
Meanwhile, defending champion Maria Sharapova saw her last-16 clash against Lucie Safarova pushed back until today because of the rain.
Second seed Sharapova was due to face the Czech left-hander in the last scheduled match on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
But following the rain stoppage and with two men’s fourth round ties still to be played, organizers decided to cancel the Russian’s match.
The fourth-round tie between Garbine Muguruza and Flavia Pennetta, set to be last up on Court Philippe Chatrier, was also put back until today.
One of the later men’s matches sees home hope Gael Monfils, one of five Frenchmen through to the last 16, taking on 17-time grand slam champion and second seed Roger Federer.
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