Fast lady

That equals her previous best Grand Slam effort at the Australian Open earlier this year, and with Serena Williams gone, the world No 2 is now the clear favourite for the women's title.

"The first few matches have been really good, and we're on to the next one," Sharapova said. "I'm certainly happy with the way I performed in those rounds and followed through. I did everything I had to do.

"But in the next round, it starts from nil-nil. Whoever you're playing, you have to go and try and do the same thing. There are a lot more rounds to go. It just gets tougher from this point. And you hope as the tournament goes on that you raise your level, you get better. You're going to be facing tougher opponents, you're going to be maybe facing two three-setters, and you just have to be ready."

Eight years after she burst on to the scene by winning Wimbledon, Sharapova, 25, is four wins away from joining the elite group to have won all four Grand Slam titles. In fact, she has always been decent on clay. It's just that her performances on faster surfaces were better, helping her win each of the other three Grand Slam events once.

A semi-finalist here last year and a winner on clay this year in Stuttgart and Rome, the difference now is that Sharapova's physical strength is such that she knows she can recover from tough matches to produce another top display.

She said: "I felt that in the first few rounds, especially the first couple, I always had three-set matches here in the beginning. I hesitated and I was always thinking, well, it's going to be tougher for me later in the rounds because I don't think I'll recover as well.

"That was the main thing. Now I could play the longest match and I feel like I could go out and play the next day, which is mentally really helpful."

Asked whether she felt sorry for fans who paid a lot of money only to see a short match, Sharapova gave a predictable response.

"The last thing that's on my mind when I'm going out on court is thinking about who paid for a ticket and how long they're going to watch my match for," she said.

"I'm not sure if that's selfish or not but my job is to go out on the court and to try to win. Whether it's 6-0, 6-0, whether it's a tough three-set match, you're trying to do what you have to do and play as well as you can."

Peng is ranked 30 but she was simply blown off court by the Russian, whose serve is clicking nicely and whose groundstrokes have been flying in the relatively fast conditions of the first week.

World No 1 Victoria Azarenka, who plays Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia in the fourth round today, remains a threat but is not playing her best, leaving Sam Stosur, the runner-up here two years ago and the current US Open champion, as perhaps Sharapova's biggest rival.

Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova beat Nina Bratchikova of Russia 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 while defending champion Li Na, also a real danger for the title again, battled back to beat American 20-year-old Christina McHale 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Fourth seed Kvitova said she was enjoying playing on clay, even if the majority of her success has come on faster surfaces.

"Two years ago it was very difficult for me to move on the clay but I have to say that I improved a lot with my fitness and I can slide,"

The Czech added: "I improved a lot and I am more comfortable on the court and trying to still play my aggressive game."

According to tournament organisers, around 50 million television viewers watched Li Na's win over McHale, one of a group of improving young Americans.

The Chinese has been more under the radar than usual here but needed to fight hard to turn things around against McHale, who has risen to No 36 in the rankings this year.

"In the first set I think I was always just following what she did," Li said. "But I was happy I could change things a little bit at the beginning of the second set."

Varvara Lepchenko may be a name unfamiliar to most casual tennis fans but the Uzbekistan-raised American is changing that with her efforts here.

Yesterday, she beat former champion Francesca Schiavone 3-6, 6-3, 8-6 to reach the fourth round, outlasting the Italian after more than three hours. Having begun the year at No 128 in the world, she arrived in Paris ranked 63 and one more win will give her a place in the USA team for the Olympics at Wimbledon.

"I had to really pull it together and stay very aggressive and fight," said Lepchenko, who now plays Kvitova.

"Until the very end, I didn't know if I was going to win but I kept believing in myself. Something deep inside of me said 'you can do it, you can do it'."