Reuters: Sports News: Li goes through, Schiavone goes out at French Open

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Li goes through, Schiavone goes out at French Open Jun 2nd 2012, 14:25 1 of 6. Li Na of China waves after winning her match against Christina McHale of the U.S. during the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris June 2, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Benoit Tessier By Clare Fallon PARIS | Sat Jun 2, 2012 10:25am EDT PARIS (Reuters) - Last year's finalists Francesca Schiavone and Li Na headed in opposite directions at the French Open on Saturday when the Italian was knocked out in the third round and the Chinese fought her way through to the last 16 with a tough win. Schiavone, the Roland Garros winner in 2010 and runner-up to Li last year, was unlucky to run into battling American Varvara Lepchenko for the second time in a month. Lepchenko, who beat the world number 12 on Madrid's new blue clay four weeks ago, struck again, defeating Schiavone 3-6 6-3 8-6 in the midday sun on Court One. Seventh seed Li had to fight hard against world number 36 Christina McHale of the United States before winning 3-6 6-2 6-1 and setting up a fourth-round match against Kazakh qualifier Yaroslava Schedova. On a hot day at Roland Garros, Russian Mikhail Youzhny melted hearts when he scrawled the word "SORRY!" in the clay with the toe of his shoe after winning only six points in the first eight games of a three-set thrashing by Spanish sixth seed David Ferrer. "I just wanted to say sorry to the fans because they came to see a beautiful match but I simply could not give them that," Youzhny told Russian reporters after the 6-0 6-2 6-2 defeat. Li struggled with her serve at the start and blamed herself for being too passive. "In the first set I was always following what she did, feeling like she was the champion on the court," Li told a news conference. "She is a very dangerous player; I was happy I could win... because I had more experience." Czech fourth seed Petra Kvitova, the Wimbledon champion, had hoped to get a swift win on the Philippe Chatrier court after taking the first set against Nina Bratchikova in 28 minutes. The Russian upped her game however, and Kvitova needed a third set to win 6-2 4-6 6-1 and go through to a meeting with Lepchenko. Uzbekistan-born Lepchenko was delighted to reach the fourth round of a grand-slam event for the first time. "I was fighting all the way to the end, I was trying to stay with Francesca the whole time," she told a news conference. "She played amazing and it is her court and I knew that she was not going to give it away for free," added the left-hander, who has risen from 128 at the start of the year to 63 in the rankings. "I had to work really hard, and I did." Schiavone, who was on court for more than three hours with the temperature rising to 29 degrees Celsius, said she had been happy overall with the way she played. The Italian added, however: "I had my chances, I simply did not take them." (Editing by Pritha Sarkar) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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