Saturday 30 May 2015 14:10, UK
Defending French Open champion Maria Sharapova passed her first serious test with flying colours, dismissing Australian 26th seed Samantha Stosur 6-3 6-4 to reach the last 16 on Friday.
The second seed from Russia had too much poise and pace for Stosur, runner-up in 2010 and twice a semi-finalist, whose heavy top-spin game can be a handful on clay.
Sharapova, who played in the last three French Open finals, winning two, broke four times to seal a convincing win when Stosur fired a forehand wide.
The five-time Grand Slam champion will take on Czech 13th seed Lucie Safarova for a quarter-final spot.
It took Ana Ivanovic just 53 minutes to return to a fourth round at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in more than a year.
Ivanovic, who won the French Open in 2008 the year after losing in the final, advanced 6-0 6-3 against 165th-ranked Donna Vekic.
Ivanovic last made the fourth round of a major at the Australian Open in 2014. She saved a break point serving for the match and finished with 19 winners.
Ivanovic was cheered to victory by her boyfriend Bastien Schweinsteiger, the Bayern Munich footballer.
"After my first two matches, I have really started to get a little bit of feeling and groove," said the Serb, who had to come back from losing the opening set in her first two rounds in Paris.
"When you know you are working the right direction, it always gets results."
Elsewhere, Alize Cornet needed two and a half hours to defeat 33-year-old Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 4-6 6-3 7-5 in a match scarred by 85 unforced errors and a bizarre incident where the French player served to the wrong side.
Elina Svitolina, the 19th seeded Ukrainian, reached the fourth round of a major for the first time - she defeated fellow former French Open junior champion Annika Beck of Germany 6-3 2-6 6-4.
More seeds crash out
In-form Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro became the latest fancied player to exit the women's singles at the French Open when she lost to Italian Flavia Pennetta 6-3 6-4 on Friday.
The world No 8's defeat means four of the top eight women's seeds are out before the middle weekend.
Twice a quarter-finalist at Roland Garros, Suarez Navarro was being strongly tipped for a long run this year after reaching the Rome final this month where she narrowly lost to Maria Sharapova, but Pennetta stopped her in her tracks.
Suarez Navarro threw away her opening service game with two double faults and never found any rhythm against a player making her 13th consecutive main draw appearance at Roland Garros.
The Spaniard recovered from 3-1 in the second set to lead 4-3 but Pennetta then took charge and swept to victory.
Pennetta, the 28th seed, faces another Spaniard in the next round after Garbine Muguruza beat Germany's 11th seed Angelique Kerber 4-6 6-2 6-2.
