Maria Sharapova's French Open dreams were shredded by a familiar foe on Monday, while Roger Federer plunged a dagger into French hearts. Sharapova has never felt at home in the heartland of claycourt tennis and on Monday her weakness was unashamedly exposed during a 6-7, 7-6, 6-2 demolition job by fellow Russian Dinara Safina. As Sharapova muttered and spluttered her way out of Paris, Federer maintained his aura of calm to subdue the brave challenge of local hope Julien Benneteau 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 and reach the quarterfinals of Roland Garros for the fourth year running. After huffing and puffing past three obscure opponents in the previous rounds, Sharapova met her match in 13th seed Safina, who had beaten the top seed at the same stage here two years ago. At 5-2 down in the second set, Safina looked to be heading out. Instead of accepting her fate, she chose to take out her frustrations on her racket, smacking it into the red dirt in anger. Her hot-headedness proved to have the desired effect as in the next game she went on to save a match point by unleashing a spectacular winner. “I'm not the girl to keep all the emotions I have inside,” said Safina, who will next face another Russian in Elena Dementieva. As Safina's game exploded into life, Sharapova's started to fade. Twelve months after describing herself as a “cow on ice” on clay, Sharapova skidded out of the tournament by ramming a forehand long. She would perhaps be best to wipe out memories of her 2008 Paris sojourn but if she ever chooses to read up on it – it will make for grim reading. In four matches she piled up an astonishing 199 unforced errors and 43 double faults – certainly not the kind of statistics a world number one would be proud of. To compound her misery, Sharapova's premature departure could herald the end of her reign as world number one. She was in a four-way race to secure the top ranking at the end of the tournament, but if any of her main rivals – Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova – go on to lift the title on Saturday they will also climb to the top of the WTA standings. While Sharapova's hopes of completing a career Grand Slam stalled on Monday, Federer stepped up his pursuit of an elusive French Open crown with an entertaining win over Benneteau. For the third match running, Federer got wet on court as the rain once again returned to Roland Garros, but the top seed made sure his title hopes were not washed away and he booked a last-eight showdown with Chilean Fernando Gonzalez. Benneteau, one of five Frenchman to reach the fourth round, got the partisan crowd going by showing off a range of slam dunk shots, but his repertoire could not save him from defeat at the hands of a man who has reached 15 successive Grand Slam semis. The day ended on high for the French though, as Gael Monfils jigged his way to a 7-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Ivan Ljubicic. David Ferrer took a leaf out of Safina's manual to make sure he lived to fight another day. Annoyed at being broken in the third set against Czech Radek Stapanek, a raging Ferrer flung his racket into the ground, picked it up and then snapped it in two against his bended knee. The episode spurred him on to a 4-6, 6-2, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 win and a last-eight date with Monfils. As the top-seeded Bryan brothers crashed out of the men's doubles, US hopes of a singles champion vanished when Robby Ginepri bowed out following a 7-6, 6-3, 6-1 defeat by 24th seed Gonzalez. Seventh seed Dementieva, the 2004 runner-up, won an error-strewn Russian catfight against Vera Zvonareva 6-4, 1-6, 6-2. – Reuters __
