Henin battles past Sharapova

Justine Henin recovered from the loss of her first set at the French Open for five years to beat Maria Sharapova and extend her winning run at Roland Garros to 24 matches.

Four-time champion Henin looked in real danger of her first defeat in the tournament since 2004 when 12th seed Sharapova had three points for a double-break in the deciding set after the contest resumed on Sunday at one set all.

But the Belgian 22nd seed hit back to win five of the next six games and seal a 6-2 3-6 6-3 victory after two hours and seven minutes spread over two days on Philippe Chatrier Court.

Meanwhile, an inspired Nadia Petrova claimed the biggest scalp of this year's tournament after beating Venus Williams for the first time in her career.

Petrova had lost all four of her previous meetings with the world number two but showed tremendous skill and resolve to seal a 6-4 6-3 fourth-round victory on Philippe Chatrier Court.

Petrova, who struck an impressive 28 winners and saved six break points, will now play fellow Russian Elena Dementieva for a place in what would be her third Roland Garros semi-final.

Fifth seed Dementieva swept aside the only remaining qualifier left in the draw, Chanelle Scheepers, 6-1 6-3, while third seed Caroline Wozniacki survived a fightback from Flavia Pennetta (14) to win 7-6 (7/5) 6-7 (4/7) 6-2 on Suzanne Lenglen Court.

The last eight sees the Dane play Francesca Schiavone (17), who beat defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova's conqueror, Maria Kirilenko (30), 6-4 6-4.