Stosur overpowers Halep, Pironkova defeats Radwanska in Paris

PARIS: Sam Stosur powered into the French Open quarter-finals with a 7-6(0), 6-3 win against Simona Halep on Tuesday, adapting better to damp and heavy conditions than her higher-ranked Romanian opponent.

World number two Agnieszka Radwanska suffered a monumental meltdown at a soggy French Open on Tuesday as her Roland Garros hopes fizzled out with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 defeat by Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova in the fourth round.

In a match between two former Roland Garros finalists that spanned three days and was twice suspended due to rain, the 21st-seeded Australian overcame a slow start to beat Halep for the first time in five attempts and reach the last eight for the fourth time.

The contest was halted late on Sunday due to rain, with Halep leading 5-3, the Romanian’s steady pummelling of Stosur’s weaker backhand side having paid off in the seventh game when she took the Australian’s serve on her third break point.

But Stosur, who lost the 2010 final in Paris to Italy’s Francesca Schiavone, was much the sharper when the players resumed on Tuesday.

She consistently served around 20 km/h (12 mph) faster than her opponent and peppered the lines on both sides of the court with forehand groundstrokes that gradually wore down Halep’s defences.

She won her serve to love and then broke Halep, whose play was littered with unforced errors as she struggled with the rain-sodden conditions, to square the match at 5-5 and, after two service holds, blitzing the tiebreak 7-0.

Stosur then broke again at the start of the second set and led 3-2 until play was suspended again when steady drizzle turned heavier, dropping just one further game to close out the match. The 32-year-old Australian will next face either world number two Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland or Bulgarian outsider Tsvetana Pironkova for a place in the last four.

Radwanska had been leading 6-2 3-0 when rain halted play on Sunday but with the match resuming more than 40 hours later, following Monday’s washout, the Polish second seed seemed all at sea as she lost 10 games in a row against a player ranked 100 places below her.

With misty rain falling over Court Suzanne Lenglen, Radwanska struggled to handle the heavy conditions and lost six games in a row to surrender the second set with a forehand error.

A further two hour 45 minute rain disruption failed to improve Radwanska’s mood or her fortunes as she fell 4-0 behind in the third set.

The 27-year-old, who called on the trainer to get treatment on her right hand midway through the decider, eventually halted Pironkova’s run by breaking the Bulgarian in the fifth game.

But Radwanska could not avoid the embarrassment of being beaten by a player ranked outside the top 100 for the first time in more than seven years when she netted a forehand on Pironkova’s second match point.

A match that lasted just two hours and 12 minutes on court finally finished at 4.18 pm local time on Monday, almost 46 hours after it had started on Sunday.

“It was very difficult with all the rain as we were waiting almost two days to finish the match,” a beaming Pironkova said after reaching the last eight in Paris for the first time. “But I can’t complain as I am in the quarter-finals of the French Open.”