PARIS — Eugenie Bouchard raced into the French Open quarterfinals by beating eighth-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-1, 6-2 in 52 minutes on Sunday.
The 18th-seeded Canadian wasted no time, opening up a 5-0 lead in 16 minutes. Bouchard, who reached the Australian Open semifinals this year, next plays either No. 14-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain or the unseeded Ajla Tomljanovic. They were playing later Sunday.
Kerber, a quarterfinalist at Roland Garros two years ago, made a string of unforced errors and Bouchard broke for a 2-1 lead in the second set when Kerber returned long from the back of the court.
With the top three women’s seeded players out, Maria Sharapova remains the favourite to win the tournament for the second time. The seventh-seeded Russian later played Samantha Stosur.
Trailing 5-2, Kerber played with the strings of her racket as she hunched forward on her chair, her head bowed. Bouchard, by contrast, sat upright, taking a few deep breaths to compose herself before serving out the match. She clinched victory on her first match point when Kerber — a two-time Grand Slam semifinalist — made another unforced error, this time as her wild forehand sailed out.
In men’s fourth-round action later Sunday, second-seeded Novak Djokovic was playing No. 13-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga; fourth-seeded Roger Federer took on Ernests Gulbis; and sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych faced No. 10-seeded John Isner.
There were two third-round matches remaining, with seventh-seeded Andy Murray and No. 28 Philipp Kohlschreiber deep into a fifth set, and No. 12-seeded Richard Gasquet up against Fernando Verdasco.
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