Maria Sharapova barely averted a shutout yesterday before losing to Dominika Cibulkova 6-0, 6-2 in the quarter-finals of the French Open, the worst Grand Slam defeat of her career.
Cibulkova was one point from victory at 5-love in the second set before Sharapova finally found her form. She won that game and then another, hitting a flurry of winners and saving four match points before Cibulkova closed out the win.
"I don't really care about numbers," Sharapova said. "It's either a W or an L and I prefer W. You know, if it's 7-6 in the third and you come out with a loss, I mean, what's the difference?"
Sharapova was playing in just her second tournament after a layoff of nearly 10 months because of a right shoulder injury. She won three-setters in all four previous rounds at Paris and the long matches took a toll.
Fell short
"I guess you could only ask your body to do so much," she said. "Everything fell a little short today. The pace wasn't there on my strokes and I was five steps slower."
The three-time Grand Slam champion had 27 unforced errors to nine for the No. 20-seeded Cibulkova, a Slovak who advanced to her first major semi-final.
The 20-year-old Cibulkova relied on steady strokes from the baseline, and the margin in unforced errors in the opening set was 13-1.
"It was, I think, more surprising for the people who don't know me, maybe for the crowd," Cibulkova said. "But today I was playing really solid."
Cibulkova's opponent tomorrow will be top-ranked Dinara Safina, who rallied to beat Victoria Azarenka 1-6, 6-4, 6-2.
In men's play, Robin Soderling came up with an impressive encore to his upset of top-ranked Rafael Nadal, by beating Nikolay Davydenko. The No. 23-seeded Soderling swept the first five games and won 6-1, 6-3, 6-1.
Soderling, 24, has advanced beyond the third round at a major event for the first time.
"I always knew that I could play really, really good tennis," he said.
After ending Nadal's four-year reign as French Open champion, Soderling received a congratulatory text message from fellow Swede Bjorn Borg.
His opponent Friday will be No. 12-seeded Fernando Gonzalez, who became the first Chilean to reach the French Open semi-finals when he beat No. 3 Andy Murray 6-3, 3-6, 6-0, 6-4.
Gonzalez finished with 24 forehand winners to three for Murray.