World No. 2 Maria Sharapova continued her dominant start to the French Open by hammering 28th seed Shuai Peng in the third round of the French Open on Saturday.
Sharapova won 6-1, 6-2 and has now dropped just five games in her first three matches of the tournament.
In the fourth round, she faces Czech player Klara Zakopalova, ranked 50th in the world, who pulled off a surprise straight-sets win over Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the 22nd seed.
Zakopalova won 6-3, 7-5 to eject 22nd seed Pavlyuchenkova and give herself the chance to even up her head-to-head record with Sharapova, which currently stands at 2-1 in the Russian’s favor.
Elsewhere, British No. 1 Andy Murray put his injury worries behind him to record a straight-sets win over Santiago Giraldo.
The 50th-ranked Colombian capitulated 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 while Murray showed no sign of the back spasms that incapacitated him for part of his second-round win over Jarkko Nieminen.
The episode prompted former Wimbledon champion Virginia Wade to brand him a “drama queen.”
Murray faces either German veteran Tommy Haas or French 17th seed Richard Gasquet in the last 16.
Sixth seed David Ferrer of Spain crushed Russian No. 1 Mikhail Youzhny 6-0, 6-2, 6-2 in a match where the Russian felt so bad about his standard of play that he scrawled “sorri” onto the surface of the court midway through the match.
Serbian eighth seed Janko Tipsarevic knocked out 29th seed Julien Benneteau of France 6-3, 7-5, 6-4, while Spain’s Nicolas Almagro, the 12th seed, overcame Leandro Mayer of Argentina 6-4, 6-1, 6-2.
Reigning French Open champion Li Na continued the defense of her title with a third-round comeback win against Christina McHale of the United States on Saturday.
Li dominated in the second and third sets to take the win 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 and set up a fourth-round tie with world No. 142 Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan, who knocked out Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-4, 7-5.
Earlier, 14th seed and 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone was upset by Varvara Lepchenko of the United States 3-6, 6-3, 8-6.
World No. 4 Petra Kvitova battled past Russian world No. 109 Nina Bratchikova, winning 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 to set up a fourth round clash, and will now play Lepchenko, ranked 63rd.
