2012 FRENCH OPEN Day 9: Qualifier Beats Champ

Shvedova celebrates

Li slumps

Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan, ranked 142 in the World and a qualifier for the 2012 French Open, upset defending champion Li Na in three sets on Day 9 of Roland Garros in Paris. The score was 3-2 6-2 6-0 and took just over 2 hours. Shvedova was ranked as high at 29 in the world two years ago after reaching her first major quarterfinal here in Paris but had plummeted down the rankings since then. Li had been playing excellent tennis throughout the clay court season and although she had been flying under the radar for most of the tournament, her loss before the quarterfinals as a solid Top 10 player was still a surprise.

Other important results on Day 9 of the tournament was the conclusion of two men's matches carried over from Day 8. The two players leading (Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Juan Martin del Potro) were able to finish off their opponents, Stanislas Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych, respectively. As reward, the two will face World #1 Novak Djokovic and World #3 Roger Federer in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. 6-time defending champion embarrassed Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-2 6-0 6-0 to reach a quarterfinal showdown with compatriot Nicolas Almagro. World #4 Andy Murray ended the hopes of the hometown crowd of having two French quarterfinalists by defeating Richard Gasquet in 4-sets while David Ferrer continued his mechanic demolition of his opponents by adding Janko Tipsarevic to his list of victims. Next up for the Valencia Terminator is Murray, who is trying to reach his 6th consecutive major semifinal.

The dismissal of the defending champion notwithstanding, the match of the day was probably the 3 hour slugfest between Maria Sharapova and Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic won by the Russian 6-4 6-7(5) 6-2. Until this round you could count on one hand the number of games the once and future World #1 had lost in her first 3 matches. In Zakapalova she faced a player who could match Sharapova's firepower off the ground and outmatch her her mobility on the ground. What neither Zakapalova or Sharapova could do was hold serve. The conditions were damp, cold and windy like Day 8 and this led to arguably more exciting tennis. There were twenty-one(!) service breaks in 30 service games played. This does not bode well for Sharapova's chances to win the title for which she is now considered the favorite, but it is doubtful she will have as bad a serving day as she had today. Other results from today was World #3 Petra Kvitova's dismissal of the last American in the draw, Varvara Lepchenko and Kaia Kanepi's second consecutive 3-set win.

On Tuesday and Wednesday the men's and women's quarterfinals will be played.