French Open 2011: Schiavone Advances, Bartoli Comes Back with Crowd Support

Tennis Now

Defending Champion Francesca Schiavone walked on to the fourth round after her opponent Peng Shuai retired. Peng was 3-6, 2-1 down in the second set, but began to look ill and pale. She consulted a trainer and withdrew.

The fifth seed will face former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic, who defeated America’s No. 1 Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-2, 6-2. Mattek-Sands was plagued by 30 unforced errors and no break point opportunities, while Jankovic was successful at the net and had a strong first serve.

Meanwhile the crowd was screaming for No. 11 seed Marion Bartoli and fueled her to come back after losing the first set to German Julia Goerges. France’s sweetheart won 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 with strong fist pumps. Goerges had almost four-times the winners of Bartoli at 48 to 14 and eight aces to one, but the crowd seemed to get to Goerges.

We saw Maria Sharapova witness the wrath of the crowd yesterday and that could have been difficult for Goerges, who has only been to Roland Garros in 2010 where she made it to the second round.

Tennis Channel commentator, Martina Navratilova, pointed out the peculiar way in which Bartoli looked to her father/coach after every point and some odd hand gestures from Doctor Walter Bartoli. It was not noticed by the umpire or her opponent but from what onlookers saw, it was very suspicious.

Bartoli will face Stosur’s slayer, Gisela Dulko, in the fourth round. Bartoli leads their head-to-head series 4-0.

Meanwhile Caroline Wozniacki has never lost set to Daniella Hantuchova—until today. Watch the match on the live scores.

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