Veteran grand-slam queens Lindsay Davenport and Mary Pierce battled through to a French Open quarterfinal showdown on Sunday, but Bulgarian 15-year-old Sesil Karatantcheva gave notice that the clock is ticking on the old-timers.
Top seed Davenport was forced into her fourth three-set struggle of the tournament to defeat Kim Clijsters, while Pierce — the winner in Paris in 2000 — needed 11 match points to beat Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder.
Karatantcheva followed up her shock third-round win against Venus Williams to beat Emmanuelle Gagliardi in straight sets to take a step closer to breaking Monica Seles’s record as the youngest grand-slam winner to date.
Men’s top seed Roger Federer eased into the quarterfinals for the first time in four years with a straight-sets win over 1998 champion Carlos Moya.
Spanish fourth seed Rafael Nadal was one set-all, and had edged ahead with a break in the third set, against Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean in his fourth-round tie when rain brought an early end to the day’s action.
The 28-year-old Davenport, bidding to lift the only grand-slam title to have eluded her, had to fight back to see off Clijsters 1-6, 7-5, 6-3.
”I haven’t been in the quarterfinals here since 1999 and I am a little bit amazed I was able to pull it off today, considering how badly I was losing and the previous matches against her,” said Davenport, who had lost her last six matches against the Belgian.
Davenport now faces 30-year-old Pierce, the 21st seed, who beat eighth-seeded Schnyder 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 although she needed 11 match points to wrap up the tie.
”I’m very relieved to get through,” said Pierce, who made her Roland Garros debut in 1990. ”I made mistakes on those match points, but it’s like that at times.”
The winner of the Davenport-Pierce clash could face a semifinal meeting with 15-year-old Karatantcheva, the sensation of the tournament.
The Bulgarian enjoyed a 7-5, 6-3 win over Gagliardi that put her just three matches away from history as the youngest grand-slam winner yet.
Monica Seles was 16 years and six months when she took the French Open in 1990.
”I believe I can play better, but I don’t know where that can take me,” said Karatantcheva.
She next takes on Russia’s Elena Likhovtseva who put out compatriot Elena Dementieva, the fourth seed and last year’s runner-up, 7-6 (7/3) 5-7, 7-5.
Wimbledon champion and second seed Maria Sharapova was ahead 6-2, 3-3 against Spain’s Nuria Llagostera Vives when rain brought a suspension.
Federer equalled his best French Open performance to date with a clinical 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 demolition of 1998 champion Carlos Moya of Spain.
The top seed, bidding to become only the sixth man to win all four grand slams, will take on unseeded Romanian Victor Hanescu for a place in the semifinals.
Hanescu reached his first career grand-slam quarterfinal with a 6-3, 4-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 win over Argentinian 10th seed David Nalbandian, who was a semifinalist in 2004.
Federer had reached the last eight in Paris in 2001, but had failed to get beyond the third round since.
Moya, playing in his 10th Roland Garros, was hampered by a severe shoulder injury and Federer admitted it was his intention to exploit the weakness.
”He wasn’t 100%. I knew how much pain he was in and that he couldn’t serve so I had to make sure I got to him mentally,” said Federer.
Federer’s main rival for the title, fourth seed Nadal, lost his first set of the tournament before his clash against Grosjean was suspended due to rain.
Nadal was leading 6-4, 3-6, 3-0 when play was called off for the day after a 10-minute-long furious crowd reaction to a disputed line-call at the start of the second set had appeared to unsettle him. — Sapa-AFP