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Perhaps one of the most intriguing matches of Day 11 at the 2011 French Open is between Russian Maria Sharapova, seeded No. 7  and the number 15 seed, German Andrea Petkovic.

Maria Sharapova has won slams at every venue except the French Open in Paris. She came into the tournament with some degree of positive speculation about her chances of winning at Stade Roland Garros because just prior to the start of the French Open, the Russian captured the title in Rome on clay. 

Clay has always been acknowledged as Sharapova’s worst surface. Even the Russian has described her movements on the clay as those resembling “a cow on ice.”

Sharapova’s appearance on Wednesday marks her first time in a slam quarterfinal in two years. Accomplishing that at the French Open is a sign of how much the Russian has improved since her shoulder surgery and subsequent comeback. 

Sharapova is back in contention.

She will face one of the up and coming stars of the WTA, Andrea Petkovic, who also made the quarterfinals of the Australian Open earlier this year. The German has shot up the rankings and is now poised to take her place with the other women at the top of the women’s game.

Petkovic reached the quarterfinals by defeating Russian Maria Kirilenko 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. Sharapova had to get past the No. 12 seed Agnieszka Radwanska 7-6, 7-5.  Neither match was a gimme for either lady.

Sharapova with a win tomorrow and a French Open championship would win her career grand slam.  For the German Petkovic, a win tomorrow and the French Open championship would see the German launched into the top 10.

Both ladies will be working hard for a win on Wednesday....

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No doubt both (5) Robin Soderling and (1)Rafael Nadal are on edge about their quarterfinal match tomorrow on Court Phillippe Chatrier at the 2011 French Open.

While Soderling appears to be getting stronger match by match, Nadal has admitted in his press conferences that he feels his own play so far in French Open is not good enough for the five-time champion to come away with win number six.

Tomorrow, we should know the truth, not only of Nadal’s self-assessment, but of Soderling’s ability to put the man from Majorca down for the second time. 

To date, the Swede is the only man ever to defeat Rafael Nadal on the grounds of Stade Roland Garros. Soderling defeated Nadal in the fourth round of the 2009 French Open as the World No. 1 was on his way to winning his fifth consecutive French Open title. 

Instead, the Majorcan was sent home, soon to lose his No. 1 ranking to Roger Federer who won the French Open in 2009 and then went on to take back the Wimbledon title a month later in July. 

Nadal holds a 5-2 advantage in their head-to-head meetings. But Soderling is always dangerous, especially at the French Open where his power seems to do the most damage.

In both 2009 and 2010 Soderling has been a finalist. The third time, Soderling is hoping, will the charm––to allow the Swede to win his first grand slam trophy. 

Nadal will be seeking to win his sixth French Open title which will tie him with another clay court great, the Swede Bjorn Borg.

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As (3) Roger Federer quietly made his way into the 2011 French Open semifinals on Tuesday, the Swiss will no longer be able to remain in the unaccustomed shadows of this grand slam tournament.

His opponent on Friday at the French Open will be the No. 2 seed, Novak Djokovic who has had an extended rest from the proceedings after the Serb’s quarterfinal opponent, Italian Fabio Fognini retired from the tournament. 

The extended period of time off may or may not be an advantage.  Tennis pundits are still arguing about the supposed benefits and/or disadvantages of the long layoff. 

Regardless, these two heavyweights on the men’s tour will do battle for the fourth time in 2011. Their ultimate reward will be a spot in the 2011 French Open finals.

Djokovic has won all three of their recent encounters, defeating Federer at the 2011 Australian Open semifinals, the finals in Dubai and the semifinals at Indian Wells. 

Overall, however, Federer leads in their head to head 13-9.

The two have met on clay three times with Federer winning two out of three.  In 2009, Djokovic won at Rome in the semifinals. Federer had defeated the Serb twice on the clay courts of Monte Carlo in 2006 and 2008.  Federer and Djokovic have not met on the red dirt since 2009.

Djokovic, of course, has not lost a match since the start of 2011 and is on his way to winning his 42nd match of the year. A win would tie John McEnroe’s record winning streak. 

A win over Federer on Friday will guarantee breaking McEnroe’s record, plus taking over the No. 1 ranking from Rafael Nadal. 

So far this year, Djokovic has been fearless.  Nothing has deterred the Serb's ability to win or his nerves. 

Just how long will this match winning streak continue? Will Federer be able to exert his prowess over the Serb one more time? Tune in Friday and find out...

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Swiss (3) Roger Federer vs. Frenchman (9) Gael Monfils

The average ranking of Frenchman Gael Monfils’ first three opponents was 177. 

When play stopped on Sunday, the No. 9 seed Gael Monfils had just gone up two sets to one over the No. 7 seed Spaniard David Ferrer but was down 0-2 in the fourth set. At that point, play was called because of darkness. When play resumed on Monday, Ferrer continued, storming through to take the fourth set 6-1. 

The match would be decided in the fifth and final set. Monfils broke to go up 3-1 in the early going of the final set.  Ferrer raised his game, refusing to concede defeat.  He broke back and then held serve to level the match at 5-5.  With no tiebreak, the two fought on until Monfils finally sealed the match by breaking Ferrer at love, going on to serve out the match at 8-6.

Monfils next opponent was Swiss (3) Roger Federer on Tuesday. 

Federer’s fourth round opponent was against countryman Stanislas Wawrinka.  Wawrinka had played a tense and exciting match to get past Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in five sets.  But on day 8, Stan-the-man could not deliver as he fell to Federer 6-3, 6-2, 7-5. 

Roger Federer had defeated Gael Monfils five times coming into this match today, three times on clay. With windy, tricky conditions to contend with, Monfils and Federer found it difficult to settle into the match.

Federer started slowly in his match against the No. 9 seed Monfils, broken immediately in game three.  But after gaining control of his unforced errors, Federer broke back to level the set at 3-3.  At 4-3, with Monfils serving, Federer had three break opportunities that went for naught as Monfils held at 4-4.

In the tenth game of set one, Federer broke at 15-40 on the Monfils serve to win the first set 6-4 in 42 minutes.

To make matters worse for Monfils, Federer broke the Frenchman’s serve immediately to start the second set at 2-0, going up 3-0 in the blink of an eye.

Monfils stopped the bleeding in game four, making it onto the board at 3-1––then broke back in the fifth game. Federer, however, broke the Frenchman’s serve again in the sixth game with two break opportunities going up 4-2.  After Federer went up 5-2, the trainer came out to attend to Monfils.

Federer served for the set against Monfils, the wind and the swirling clay––overcoming them all to win the second at 6-3. 

Federer broke the Monfils serve immediately to go up 2-0 in set number three; but Monfils broke back in game four to level the third set at 2-2.  In the end, the third set was settled in a tiebreak.

Obviously Federer wanted this match to end at the end of this set.

To that end the Swiss broke out to a 3-0 lead in the third set tiebreak.  The Swiss quickly built a 5-1 lead leaving himself two points from the third set and the match.  Federer took the breaker 7-3. 

The Swiss had advanced to the semifinals at the French Open without dropping a set.

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Russian (13) Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Frenchwoman (11) Marion Bartoli

Frenchwoman Bartoli has achieved what no Frenchwoman had achieved since the year 2000 when she reached the French Open quarterfinals.  The last woman to do that was Mary Pierce who won the championship that year.

Today Bartoli’s task was to take out a resurgent Svetlana Kuznetsova whose run through the draw so far had been impressive.

Kuznetsova struggled early in her fourth round match against Slovak Daniela Hantuchova, who sent the No. 1 seed Caroline Wozniacki home. But the Russian, growing stronger during the match, was able to win in three sets 6-7, 6-3, 6-2. 

In her match against the No. 11 seed Bartoli, Kuznetsova stayed even as the two held serve, going to 2-2 in the first set with some intense tennis rallies unfolding. 

But in game six, after several break opportunities, the Frenchwoman Bartoli broke the Russian’s serve to take a 4-2 lead in set one.

Kuznetsova returned the favor, breaking right back for a chance to level the first set at 4-4. But the Russian failed as Bartoli broke her serve for the second time, going up 5-3 with a chance to serve out the first set. Another break of serve, however, allowed Kuznetsova to level the first set at 5-5.

Bartoli held serve to go up 6-5 with the Russian holding to force a first-set tiebreak. The two players stayed even at 4-4; but then Bartoli won the final three points to take the first set breaker at 7-4. 

Kuznetsova was broken in her first service game of the second set. The Russian hung tough but was eventually broken again by the Frenchwoman. Bartoli went up 5-2, serving for the set but another break of serve delayed the victory for the Frenchwoman.

At 5-4, Bartoli served again for the match and a chance to advance to the semifinals to meet Francesca Schiavone who advanced earlier today.  Bartoli finally managed to close it out in an hour and 52 minutes, winning 7-6, 6-4.

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Russian (14) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Italian (5) Francesca Schiavone

Nineteen-year-old Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova overcame World No. 3 Vera Zvonareva 7-6, 2-6, 6-2 for the privilege of doing battle against the No. 5 seed and defending champion Francesca Schiavone during day 10.

With a power game dictating her success in this year’s French Open, today, the young Russian faced the finesse of the Italian veteran Schiavone.

Schiavone, whose fourth round win over Jelena Jankovic could hardly be described as a “thing of beauty,” credited her experience last year as the deciding factor in her win over the No. 10 seeded Serb. 

Against Pavlyuchenkova, Schiavone had to reduce her errors and fight to keep the Russian from gaining a foothold in the match.  But the feisty Italian did not begin well, suffering two breaks of serve to go down 4-0 in the opening set. Pavlyuchenkova dominated in the early going.

The Russian broke the Italian for the third time to take the first set 6-1. Schiavone had her work cut out for her if she was going to survive.

In the second set, the combatants remained on serve with Schiavone serving at 2-1. Once again the Russian broke Schiavone’s serve to go up 3-1 in set number two. Schiavone broke back in game seven and then broke the Russian’s serve to go up 6-5 with a chance to serve out the second set.

Remarkably, Schiavone took the second set 7-5 with her patch of bad play plainly history. The two moved on to the third set. The Italian blasted out to a 3-0 lead, dominating the action in the final set. Schiavone broke the Russian’s serve again, taking a 5-1 lead.

Serving for the match at 5-2, the wind was obviously becoming a factor as the day progressed. Holding serve proved to be difficult for the Italian. The Russian broke back at love, reclaiming one service break.

Pavlyuchenkova held to 4-5. The Italian would have another chance to serve it out. The sky offered drizzles now, as well as wind. The Russian broke back again, leveling the set at 5-5. 

But Schiavone immediately returned the favor by breaking Pavlyuchenkova again to go up 6-5 with a third chance to serve for the match.  The playing conditions were very difficult. With broken strings on the Italian’s racket, Pavlyuchenkova moved to 30-30 in the final game.

But the Italian was able to hold on, finally winning a match she had no business winning after her lackluster first set. Schiavone moved on the semifinals 1-6, 7-5, 7-5.

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Brit (4) Andy Murray vs. Serb (15) Victor Troicki

When play concluded in darkness on Day 9, Andy Murray had just wrapped up the fourth set against the No. 15 seed Victor Troicki of Serbia.  Murray had defeated Troicki the first three times the two had met. But the match on Monday proved to be a real contest of wills.

Murray, who had rolled his ankle in his third round match against German Michael Berrer, remained uncertain about his ability to take the court on Monday. Since the match with Troicki was the last matched scheduled for the day, Murray decided to take the court, moving very tentatively in the early going. 

Down 1-5 in the opener, Murray finally began to feel comfortable enough to try to make his way back in the first set. Troicki, however, was able to hang on long enough take the first set 6-4 as well as the second set 6-4. 

Things were looking bleak for the No. 4 seed at this point.  He was broken during his opening service game in the third set. But Murray began the long road back. The Scot broke back to 2-2, then was unstoppable. He allowed Troicki only one more game in the set, taking it 6-3.

Murray followed that by taking the fourth set 6-2, breaking Troicki twice before darkness forced the conclusion of activity on Court Suzanne Lenglen for the day.

On Tuesday, the two men resumed action on Court Lenglen for the privilege of facing Juan Ignacio Chela in the quarterfinals. The conditions on this day were much heavier than yesterday.

Murray, known for starting slow, did not dawdle on Day 10.  The first four games were cat and mouse forays with both men holding serve. After a bizarre call in the sixth game, Troicki managed a break of serve against the Scot, going up 4-2.  Murray once again had his back against the wall. 

Employing exemplary net play, Troicki continued to try to outfox Murray. The Serb held on to go up 5-2. Murray was still down only one break, but the Scot’s maneuvering space quickly receded.  Murray held serve to bring the match to 3-5.  The Scot needed to break serve to save the match.

Murray got to 40-30 on the Troicki serve, breaking back with sheer determination––on the brink of defeat.  Now the Scot had to hold his own serve, taking the match to 5-5 in the fifth.

Murray went up 0-40 on Troicki’s next serve giving the Scot three break points. Troicki saved two. Murray had one more chance to break, which he did to go up 6-5 with a chance to serve for the match.

Murray served it out, advancing to the quarterfinals and a real opportunity as the Scot will face Juan Ignacio Chela for a spot in the semifinals. 

Murray showed real heart to come back seemingly down and out in this match.  Murray moves on...