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Paris - Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova knocked out the highest seeded player remaining in the women's draw at the French Open, beating No. 3 Vera Zvonareva 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2 Sunday to earn a spot in the quarter-finals.
Pavlyuchenkova, at 19 the youngest player still in the tournament, won the final five games after being broken early in the third set.
The third-seeded Zvonareva followed No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki and No. 2 Kim Clijsters out of the tournament. They both lost in the third round. Fourth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus is now the highest seeded player left.
It's the first time none of the top three seeded women reached the quarter-finals at the French Open in the Open era, which began in 1968. The last time it happened at any Grand Slam tournament was at Wimbledon in 2008.
Also on Sunday, Novak Djokovic is to again put his perfect season on the line, while 2009 French Open champion Roger Federer is to play Davis Cup teammate Stanislas Wawrinka. On the women's side, Schiavone and No. 10 Jelena Jankovic are scheduled to be in action.
Zvonareva reached the Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals last year and the Australian Open semi-finals in January. She saved two match points in the final game against Pavlyuchenkova before hitting a forehand long on the third. The Russian also saved a match point in the second round before advancing.
For the 14th-seeded Pavlyuchenkova, the result is her best at a Grand Slam tournament. Previously, she reached the fourth round at least year's U.S. Open.
As the French Open rolls along, both Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova seem to be getting better and stronger.
That isn't really surprising considering that they are two of only five players remaining with more than one Grand Slam title. But with that experience comes pressure, and both have been feeling it for years.
"I (am) almost 25, but seems like I am playing for 100 years here on the tour," Nadal said with a laugh after easily eliminating Croatian wild card Antonio Veic 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 in the third round. "In my opinion, tennis is a very demanding sport mentally and physically."
Sharapova, who faced little trouble in beating Chan Yung-jan of Taiwan 6-2, 6-3, agreed with that assessment.
"We've done this for almost all our lives," said Sharapova, who turned professional when she was 14, "so we feel like we're on this sort of hamster carousel and we just keep going."
