PARIS: Maria Sharapova moved a step closer to winning a second French Open crown on Friday on a day when Croatia’s Ajla Tomljanovic made history by upsetting third seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the third round.
The Pole’s 6-4, 6-4 defeat meant that the tournament’s top three seeds had all been ousted inside six days, with top seed and defending champion Serena Williams losing in the second round and second seed Li Na departing in the first.
Top three out
It was the first Grand Slam in the Open era where the top three women seeds all failed to make the last 16.
Playing later in the day, seventh seed Sharapova dodged the debris to inflict a 6-0, 6-0 thrashing on hapless Paula Ormaechea of Argentina.
Asked if she saw herself now as the favourite win the tournament, the Russian replied: “It’s tough to talk about favourites, but there is no reason why I shouldn’t be the favourite — I have won four Grand Slams.”
Ranked 72nd in the world, 21-year-old Tomljanovic will play Spanish 14th seed Carla Suarez Navarro, who ended the dream run of 18-year-old American wildcard Taylor Townsend 6-2, 6-2, with a quarter-final place at stake.
Fourth seed Simona Halep of Romania is the top seeded player left in the draw, having reached the third round on Thursday.
“After seeing the first two seeds go out you kinda feel like — hey I can do that too. I grew up with these girls that were doing that,” the Florida-based Tomljanovic said.
“I went out out there and I really felt that I could win. It showed and that was how I won.”
Tomljanovic ended 2013 ranked 78th in the world, improving from 495th – the biggest ranking improvement by any player in the top 100.
This year she lost in the third round at the Australian Open but more recently failed to qualify for the main draw at Madrid and Rome in the buildup to Roland Garros.
For Radwanska it was the first time she had failed to make it past the third round at a Grand Slam event since the 2012 French Open.
Last year she was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon, a quarter-finalist at the Australian and French Opens and made the fourth round at the US Open.
Watched by Croatian 1997 French Open winner Iva Majoli, Tomljanovic quickly took control of a match played in front of a sparse centre court crowd.
She jumped out into a 5-1 before a shell-shocked Radwanska managed to break serve and get back to 5-4.
The Croatian made no mistake on serve in the following game though and an early break in the second set sent her on the way to the biggest win of her career. (Agencies)
