Brave Safina stuns Sharapova
Safina, the 13th seed, triumphed 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/5), 6-2, saving a match point along the way, in a tie which lasted almost three hours. She will now meet fellow Russian Elena Dementieva for a place in the semi-finals.
The victory echoed Safina’s three-set win over Sharapova at the same stage in 2006 when she recovered from 1-5 down in the final set and it came in the most dramatic of circumstances.
She wasted two set points in the opening tie-break, battled from 2-5 in the second set, saving a match point in the ninth game, before then recovering from 2/5 down in the second set tie-break.
Safina’s third win in six career meetings against her fellow Russian postponed, at least for another year, Sharapova’s dreams of winning the only Grand Slam title to have eluded her.
“I had many opportunities but I guess it was a combination of not taking those chances and being a little unlucky at times,” said Sharapova.
“Physically you have to stick with her. She’s had great success on clay and is a really tough opponent on this surface. It went in the wrong direction really fast. It was just one of those days.
“It’s a thin line between winning and losing. This stuff isn’t easy but I want to do everything perfectly.”
In the men’s, top seed Roger Federer set up a French Open quarter-final against old rival Fernando Gonzalez but he was below par in a 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 win over Frenchman Julien Benneteau in a rain-hit tie.
Gonzalez had looked impressive earlier in the day when he swept past the final American, Robby Ginepri, in straight sets 7-6 (7/4), 6-3, 6-1.
The Swiss star has dropped just one set en route to the last eight, but he will have cause for concern over how he struggled to kill off his lowly-ranked opponent.
“I couldn’t serve it out the way I wanted to in the first and second sets, but I felt okay out there,” said Federer. “But it was tough conditions with the rain delay.
“I didn’t think I had my best serving day today unfortunately. But the last three (games) have been good so I hope the next one is going to be okay again as well.”
In each of the first two sets the unseeded Benneteau broke Federer’s serve when trailing 3-5 only to lose both of them by 6-4 and 7-5.
At that stage heavy rain brought an abrupt end to proceedings and it took 90 minutes before they got back onto a packed Philippe Chatrier Centre Court.
Federer again went a break up to lead 3-1, but again Benneteau battled back to level at 3-3.
The Swiss maestro was finding it hard to put away his world-ranked 55th opponent, letting slip a match point at 5-4 up but two games later he finished it off with a smash at the net.
Benneteau said it had been an “exceptional experience playing against Federer on the centre court.
“But I was always behind, that was the problem today and I had few opportunities.”
The 26-year-old Federer is bent on winning the only Grand Slam title that has eluded him having lost to Rafael Nadal here in the last three years, including the last two finals.
In the day’s other men’s fourth round ties the remaining home hope, Gael Monfils, beat in-form Croatian Ivan Ljubicic 7-6 (7-1) 4-6 6-3 6-2.
Spanish “bulldozer” David Ferrer came from behind to storm past Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 4-6, 6-2, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.
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