Ivanovic pounded her with winners and even when the Czech carved out two break points in game five of the second, she slouched with a knowing smile when Ivanovic snuffed out any whiff of a comeback.

“It was much tougher than it probably looked, or the results indicates,” said a generous Ivanovic, who has lost a paltry 15 games at Roland Garros so far this year.

“I had to work really hard, and I played almost without mistake today.” She now plays Swiss 10th seed Patty Schnyder.

Djokovic was in no mood to let the Paul-Henri Mathieu put him off his mission of a first Roland Garros title. He swept past the French 18th seed 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 and now faces his childhood training partner Ernests Gulbis of Latvia for a place in the semis.

Gulbis is the only Latvian ever to grace the Grand Slam stage and the 19-year-old did the Baltic state proud by silencing the partisan crowd on Court Suzanne Lenglen with a 6-4, 7-6, 6-3 win over Frenchman Michael Llodra.

Dream run

“I’m happy. I mean, after the match, I don’t want to jump around and do crazy stuff. I’m just relieved that at last it’s over,” said Gulbis, who chose practice on clay over trying to qualify for Masters Series events in Hamburg and Rome this year.

Unseeded Gulbis took his chance on his only break point in the first set and sealed the opener with his fourth ace.

Llodra fought back from a break down to take the second to a tiebreak and used every tactic in the book, including two shots from between his legs to try and upend the Latvian. But Gulbis stood firm, won the tiebreak 7-4 and charged through the third in 37 minutes.

... contd.