Francesca Schiavone vs Pavlyuchenkova in quarters at Paris

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011 at 10:12 am , filed under French Open by Sam Siril

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Schiavone, the defending champion at Roland Garros in the women’s draw, will face an ambitious 19 year old at the 2011 French Open.

Francesca Schiavone, the reigning Queen of Clay, has lived up to the expectations of a fifth seeded player at Roland Garros so far.

The Italian is into the quarterfinals of the French Open and is only three wins away from retaining the Grand Slam title. Prior to the fourth round she had been cruising through this competition but was forced to dig deep against Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic. Schiavone lost the second set against former world number one but worked her way back into the lead in the match to clinch a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 victory.

Schiavone will now face the challenge of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarter-finals. Pavlyuchenkova, the Teen Queen on the women’s tour, has managed to grind out some difficult wins at the French Open this year including a difficult three-setter against Vera Zvonareva in round four (7-6, 2-6, 6-2). Pavlyuchenkova is the underdog in the quarters but she has the ability to really test Schiavone.

The Italian enters this match with a 2-1 head to head record against Pavlyuchenkova. Schiavone won the only previous clay court meeting between the pairing, though this was a close-fought contest. The two will open Court Philippe Chatrier at 2pm CET on Tuesday with a berth in the semifinals at stake.