With blue cloudless skies finally resplendent over Roland Garros, Maria Sharapova could only curse her misfortune that the vagaries of the French Open scheduling means she must today return to court barely 24 hours after luckily landing a place in the tournament’s last 16, her shoulder throbbing and her confidence distinctly on the wane.

Life could, of course, be worse for the second seed. Once again Amelie Mauresmo’s hopes of adding the long desired French Open title to add to those Grand Slam crowns she won at the Australian Open and Wimbledon last year, diminished amongst the pain of the long standing thigh injury that put her very participation into her home major in doubt.

However Sharapova’s continued involvement in the Grand Slam tournament she openly admits is least conducive to her style of play, now endangers her chances of contesting at Wimbledon in little more than three weeks time and possibly even her defence of the US Open at the end of August.

Against teenage rookie qualifier Alla Kudryavtseva, there were sufficient nerves and distinct feeling of intimidation on the opposing side of the net for Sharapova to move through to the last 16 despite her injury debilitating her normally forceful serve to such an extent that a series of double faults ensued.

Today Patty Schnyder, playing her 12th consecutive French Open and buoyed by the knowledge that she decimated Sharapova's game in their only previous clay court meeting in Rome two years ago, presents an altogether more menacing threat.

According to Sharapova quitting this event to safeguard her Wimbledon chances is not an option but after laboriously overcoming 103rd ranked Kudryavtseva 6-1 6-4 she was forced to endure her routine hour and a half long remedial warm-down of her serving shoulder that received a cortisone injection several weeks ago.

The 20-year-old has only played one preparative clay court event since an undistinguished showing on the far more amenable hard courts of Indian Wells and Miami a couple of months ago and she admitted: “I can't expect a lot from my shoulder this week After the shot, it is weak and it gets weaker.

“You're always going to feel aches and pains somewhere, especially on clay courts. It's normal. Right now everything seems to be weak and needs to be worked on.”

Optimists would readily point out thus far into the competition Sharapova has yet to drop a set but she hasn’t been tested by a succession of lower ranked opponents. Schnyder, currently placed 15th on the Sony Erics- son WTA Tour rankings but once ranked as high as no.7 and a semifinalist in Rome just a fortnight ago will present far more testing resistance.

The 28-year-old Swiss from Basle admitted she laboured in her 6-1 4-6 7-5 win over Italy’s Karin Knapp but a show court billing should induce an improvement from the 14th seed who can number countrywoman Martina Hingis and Serena Wil- liams amongst her recent victims on clay.

Picking her words carefully, she refused to give Sharapova any motivational ammunintion before their meeting. “She's a champion. And once you go on the court and have to beat a champion, it's very tough,” said Schnyder. “And she can win without serve. She can win without being the greatest mover on clay court.”

However she was more than willing her cast her memory back to the Roman semi-final that came amidst the richest run of clay court form that Sharapova has ever produced. Just a couple of weeks later the Ameri-can-schooled Russian reached the French Open quarter finals. “I was on top of my game, and I really dominated her from the back,” recalled Schnyder.

After an impressive opening game, Kudryavtseva rapidly became overawed by her opponent. Once Sharapova moved into the unusual territory of successfully attempting a drop shot before realising that luck can come back and slap you as the ball took a horrendously low bounce and caused her play a complete forehand air shot.

The danger signals did not really start flashing until the opening of the second set when the double faults began to mount and through minimal influence from Kudryavtseva, Sharapova’s serve was broken three times in succession. She was repeatedly flexing her left shoulder as well as smacking her leg in annoyance.

In the end it was Kudryavtseva’s immaturity that allowed the more experienced player through in 68 minutes but ominously there was no sign of celebration from the normally demonstrative father Yuri. Instead he could only ponder on his daughter’s clear suffering while the beaten teenager apologised: “She has a huge name and I know her reputation. She's no. 2 in the world so there was a lot of pressure.”

Pressure is something of an annual obstacle for Mauresmo at the French Open but she has now suffered 13 disappointments at the event. This year she arrived not beset by the load of expectations because of a lack of preparation through appendicitis and an injury to the abductor muscles in her right thigh.

Her pessimism proved far from ill-placed as the Czech republic’s Lucie Safarova repeated her victory that deposed Mauresmo as Australian Open champion in January. This time the score was 6-3 7-6 and the French fifth seed could only observe that the exiting feeling was distinctly familiar while admitting: “I guess it's the result of a few weeks of struggle.”