PARIS, June 1: Serbia hogged the French Open limelight on Sunday when first Ana Ivanovic raced and then Jelena Jankovic hobbled into the quarter-finals before Novak Djokovic struck another blow to the hopes of a home champion.

Second seed Ivanovic played with the urgency of a woman late for a lunch appointment as she ruthlessly dismantled Czech Petra Cetkovska 6-0, 6-0 in 54 minutes on Court Philippe Chatrier.

While Ivanovic’s win was painfully easy, Jankovic’s was just downright painful.

Jankovic needed a 10-minute medical time-out after game three of the second set against Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska before she crawled past the finishing line with a 6-3, 7-6 victory.

“The whole arm is a mess,” said Jankovic, who resembled a wrestler pinned to the floor as the tournament trainer massaged her arm and shoulder back to life.

“I started to feel the pain in the beginning of the second set and since then it’s been pain, pain, pain,” said the 23-year-old, who will next face Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro.

The Paris crowd had barely got through the scrum at the turnstiles as Ivanovic, who by each passing minute looks like improving on her runner-up finish of last year, showed no mercy against the lamentable Cetkovska.

The unseeded Czech, who had not dropped a set in the tournament, looked like a decent threat going on a high-quality opening rally, but once Ivanovic got her eye in she folded quicker than a bad poker hand.

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 indicate,” 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.

The triumph carried him to his first grand slam quarter-final and the mild-mannered world No 80 was in no mood for extravagant celebration.

“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, like Djokovic a product of Niki Pilic’s academy in Munich.

Three-time champion Rafael Nadal was looking to take his Roland Garros record to a jaw-dropping 25-0 against fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, the fourth consecutive left-hander the champion will have faced.

While Maria Sharapova led a stampede of Russian women into the last 16 of the French Open on Saturday, their hopes of a men’s champion vanished when Nikolay Davydenko fell victim to a stunning Ivan Ljubicic fightback.

As Russians and top seed Roger Federer dominated action on the court, the ITF announced an investigation had been launched into claims by Japan’s Akiko Morigami that a coach asked her to throw a Roland Garros doubles match this week to free up her playing partner’s bid to qualify for the Beijing Olympics.

Officials said they were taking ‘very seriously’ Morigami’s claims and they would await a report from local organisers before deciding on a course of action.

Morigami told Japanese media a coach asked her to lose her doubles match against Taiwanese fourth seeds Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung, they lost 6-0, 6-1, so that playing partner Aiko Nakamura could play a tournament next week.

Announcing the probe, the ITF said: “It is especially disappointing for the ITF because even the suggestion of impropriety regarding the Olympic tennis event is contrary to the spirit of the Olympic Games.”

Four compatriots joined Sharapova in the top half of the draw on Saturday but Davydenko, hoping to be the first Russian men’s champion since Yevgeny Kafelnikov in 1996, threw away a two-set lead against revitalised Croatian 28th seed Ljubicic.

There were comfortable wins for Elena Dementieva and Vera Zvonareva, who will make up a second all-Russian last 16 match-up.

Federer, at his imperious hair-flicking best, made a mockery of potential banana skin Mario Ancic by crushing the Croatian 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 on Philippe Chatrier Court to set up a fourth-round clash with France’s Julien Benneteau.

Benneteau’s four-set win over Robin Soderling and Gael Monfils’s victory over Austria’s Juergen Melzer meant five Frenchmen had reached the last 16 for the first time since 1971.

Davydenko had never lost to Ljubicic on clay, but the wily Croatian took his career record against the fourth seed to 4-3 with a barnstorming comeback on Court One.

The Russian burst to a two-set lead and never faced a break point until game five of the third set. But Ljubicic, a former world number three, took his chance and the tide turned inexorably in his favour. He won 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 and faces Monfils for a place in the quarters.

Sunday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Men’s singles:

Fourth round: 3-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) bt 18-Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) 6-4, 6-3, 6-4; Ernests Gulbis (Latvia) bt Michael Llodra (France) 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3.

Saturday’s remaining results:

Third round: Julien Benneteau (France) bt Robin Soderling (Sweden) 1-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-0, 6-1; 1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) bt Mario Ancic (Croatia) 6-3, 6-4, 6-2; 28-Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) bt 4-Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4; Gael Monfils (France) bt Juergen Melzer (Austria) 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-0, 6-2.

Women’s singles:

Fourth round: 10-Patty Schnyder (Switzerland) bt 27-Katarina Srebotnik (Slovenia) 6-2, 6-4; 3-Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) bt 14-Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) 6-3, 7-6 (7-3); Carla Suarez Navarro (Spain) bt 26-Flavia Pennetta (Italy) 6-3, 6-2; 2-Ana Ivanovic (Serbia) bt Petra Cetkovska (Czech Republic) 6-0, 6-0.Saturday’s remaining results:

Third round: Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic) bt 12-Agnes Szavay (Hungary) 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-2; 11-Vera Zvonareva (Russia) bt Aleksandra Wozniak (Canada) 6-2, 6-2; Kaia Kanepi (Estonia) bt 29-Anabel Medina (Spain) 6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 7-5; 7-Elena Dementieva (Russia) bt Olga Govortsova (Belarus) 6-0, 6-4.—Reuters