Sharapova in quarters

PARIS: Maria Sharapova beat Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa 6-3, 6-1 on Wednesday night to reach the quarterfinals of the Open GDF Suez.

The top-seeded Russian said the court was faster than expected after hitting 19 winners to 10 for Scheepers, who struggled with her serve and made eight double-faults.

“It’s just faster than what we played on the last couple of months. In Fed Cup, it was fairly slow,” said Sharapova, who won her singles match in Russia’s 3-2 win over Spain last weekend.

Julia Goerges also moved into the quarterfinals by defeating Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-4.

The sixth-seeded German went a set up with a service winner, and fired a backhand winner down the line on match point.

In first-round matches, seventh-seeded Roberta Vinci beat Simona Halep of Romania 6-4, 6-4.

Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic and Monica Niculescu of Romania also advanced, along with French wild card Pauline Parmentier and American teenager Christina Mchale.

Parmentier jumped out to 3-0 in the final set and hit a backhand cross-court winner to edge eighth-seeded Anabel Madinah Garrigues of Spain 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.

The Frenchwoman had 31 winners to only 15 for Madinah Garrigues.

Niculescu outlasted Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in an erratic match of 14 service breaks.

Zakopalova cruised past French wild card Alize Cornet 6-3, 6-1 by winning eight straight games to lead 5-0 in the second set.

Mchale beat lucky loser Varvara Lepchenko 6-4, 7-5 in an all-american match and will face Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium.

Wickmayer led 6-1 in her first-round match when American veteran Jill Craybas retired because of a right leg injury.

Vania King in last 8

In Pattaya, Thailand. eighth-seeded Vania King advanced to the quarterfinals of the Pattaya Open by beating Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia 6-1, 6-3 Thursday.

The American played well from the baseline to beat her friend and reach the quarterfinals for the first time since last September in Seoul.