Former world No.1 Maria Sharapova, now ranked 102nd, for the fourth time in a row at the 2009 French Open showed her well-known characteristics that brought her loads of fans, her ever-present fighting spirit combined with powerful tennis. Sharapova beat Li Na 6-4 0-6 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals, even though it wasn’t expected as Sharapova played her first singles match in nine months only two weeks ago.

Li Na was leading 4-2 in the deciding set, but just as it seemed Sharapova would slowly vanish from the tournament, she won four games in a row to upset Li and prevent her from becoming the first Chinese to reach the Roland Garros quarterfinals. The Russian closed out the match on her first match point.

Sharapova’s next opponent will be seed No.20 Dominika Cibulkova, who beat No.29 seed Agnes Szavay 6-2 6-4 in the fourth round.

The only Grand Slam title missing in Sharapova’s collection is the French Open one. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

Defending champion Ana Ivanovic was quickly defeated by Victoria Azarenka in the fourth round of Roland Garros.

The ninth-seeded Azarenka stormed through the first set, breaking the eighth-seeded Ivanovic in the third and seventh games, and the Belorussian continued the trend up until leading 4-0 in the second set by winning seven games in a row. Then Ivanovic gave some resistance, but all her tries were short lived and she said goodbye on Azarenka’s first match point.

Azarenka's next opponent will be top seed Dinara Safina, who is still on fire, losing just one game to Aravane Rezai to advance to the last eight. Can it be more impressive? The last year’s finalist Safina lost only five games en route to the quarterfinals. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

Second seed Serena Williams avoided the fate of her sister Venus, and recovered from being a set down to beat Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain 4-6 6-3 6-4 and move into the fourth round of the French Open.

The match was accompanied by one incident in the first set, because of which Williams called her opponent a cheat. Martinez Sanchez broke to lead 3-2, although the crucial point-winning shot appeared to rebound off her arm.

"The ball did touch her 100 percent on her arm. The rules of tennis are when the ball hits your body, then it's out of play […] She should have lost the point instead of cheating," said the ten-time Grand Slam champion Williams.

However, Martinez Sanchez insisted she was innocent.

"I put the racquet up. The ball was in and it was a point for me. It didn't hit me or my body. To say I'm a 'cheat' is stupid. I'm not going to comment on it."

Tenth seed Caroline Wozniacki lost to world No.41 Sorana Cirstea of Romania 7-6(3) 7-5. Wozniacki, who has recently become the first Danish WTA player to crack the Top 10, needed a medical time-out for a back problem when just two points from defeat.

Other notable third-round results of the day: Samantha Stosur upset Elena Dementieva, Svetlana Kuznetsova dispatched Melinda Czink 6-1 6-3, Jelena Jankovic stormed into the fourth round with a 6-1 6-1 crushing of Jarmila Groth, Victoria Azarenka defeated Carla Suarez Navarro 5-7 7-5 6-2, and Agnieszka Radwanska beat Kateryna Bondarenko 6-2 6-4. (source: AFP, photo: Stephane Martinache)

Australian seed No.30 Samantha Stosur upset Russian fourth seed Elena Dementieva 6-3 4-6 6-1 in the third round of the 2009 French Open.

The victory over the 2008 quarterfinalist and 2004 finalist gave Stosur her best ever result at Roland Garros. She reached the third round only once, in 2007, and now she’s in the fourth round for the first time.

Dementieva, the Olympic gold medalist, "didn't deserve to win" her second-round match, as she stated. She was down a set against Jelena Dokic, but the Australian retired in tears with an agonizing back injury, which I learned is believed not to be serious.

Stosur will play France’s Virginie Razzano in the fourth round. Razzano advanced with a 7-5 7-5 victory over Tathiana Garbin. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

Fighter Maria Sharapova played only one tournament since her comeback from a career-threatening shoulder injury and she managed to overcome a miserable start to beat Kazakh world No.98 Yaroslava Shvedova 1-6 6-3 6-4 in the third round of the French Open.

The 102nd-ranked former world No.1 displayed the champion inside her, just like in the previous round when she battled past 11th seed Nadia Petrova, and came back from behind to advance to the fourth round.

Sharapova is enjoying her role of an underdog at the French Open, as now the crowd is loving her. In 2007 and 2008 she was booed off after being knocked out.

"You're ranked outside the Top 100, so people like you," said the Russian. "When you're number one in the world, for some reason they don't like you anymore. It's amazing how the society works."

Sharapova will next face China's Li Na, seeded 25th. (source: Sky Sports, photo: Stephane Martinache)

Indian tennis star Sania Mirza has become engaged to 23-year-old Sohrab Mirza, a business scholar from her hometown of Hyderabad.

The 22-year-old Sania, now ranked only 95th in the world, is not planning to stop playing competitive tennis, just as her fiancé wants to pursue higher studies. Their marriage will therefore not take place in the near future.

Sania is a youth icon in her country after she became the first Indian to win a WTA title and break into the world's Top 50 in 2005. (source: Reuters, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Third seed Venus Williams saved a match point against Lucie Safarova in the second round, but today the American succumbed to Agnes Szavay’s first match point to lose in the third round of Roland Garros third time in a row.

Szavay, who was winless in the first two months of the season, upset the world No.3 Williams with an impressive score of 6-0 6-4. A bagel! Wow! We can now officially say that Szavay, once a rapidly rising tennis star, is back where she should be.

Szavay, the 29th seed, scored her seventh Top 10 win defeating a player she lost to in three sets in the quarterfinals of Acapulco in February.

The Hungarian's next opponent will be 20th seed Dominika Cibulkova, who defeated Gisela Dulko 6-4 6-2 in the third round.

As we’ve already posted, holder Ana Ivanovic went safely through to the fourth round, while 16-year-old Portuguese wunderkind Michelle Larcher de Brito didn’t manage to scream her way into the fourth round and fell to Aravane Rezai 7-6 (3) 6-2 after an interesting match. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Defending champion Ana Ivanovic beat seed No.32 Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic 6-0 6-2 to advance to the fourth round of the French Open.

The eighth-seeded Serb was taken to a tiebreaker in the first set she played at this year’s Roland Garros, but since then she has lost only eight games.

Ivanovic will play either ninth seed Victoria Azarenka or 22nd-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro in the fourth round. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Four-time Roland Garros champion Justine Henin, who quit tennis last year while still on top of the rankings, was in Paris on Thursday to attend a ceremony where she was honored with an alley at the claycourt Grand Slam being named after her.

The Belgian is standing by her decision to stay away from competitive tennis, even though she knows very well how hard it is to switch to a totally different way of life.

I think that this step, to move on, is very hard. I can tell you even if I have a lot of character, it hasn't been that easy for myself either, to, you know, stop tennis and be back in like a normal life. I think not everyone can make this step, and maybe, you know, want to be back because they don't know what to do. You have to discover who you are and to build another life. It's like it's a new birth, you know.

(source: ESPN, photos via Great Tennis Photos)

Second seed Serena Williams beat 133rd-ranked Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain 6-2 6-0 to move into the third round of Roland Garros. Jelena Dokic, whose comeback I enjoy following, had to retire against fourth seed Elena Dementieva because of a back injury.

Williams had a much easier time in the second round than in her first-round match when she needed nine match points to get through a three-setter. Interestingly, the American believes her game is much better now than when she won four consecutive Grand Slam titles in 2002-03.

The 'Serena Now' would definitely beat the 'Other Serena,' just in general. I'm older. I think I'm wiser. I think I'm just a more mature player. Back then, it was more nitty-gritty. And now it's more composed and planned-out playing.

Jelena Dokic progressed to the second round, and it’s very disappointing that she was forced to retire while leading by a set against Dementieva. Dokic left the court in floods of tears, after quitting with the score at 6-2 3-4 against. She appeared to pull something in her lower back at 2-2 in the second set.

Dementieva was full of sympathy for her distressed opponent and even said: "I didn't deserve to win this match." (sources: FOX Sports, Reuters; photos: Stephane Martinache)