Kerber reaches French Open quarter-finals for first time

Angelique Kerber of Germany returns the ball to Petra Martic of Croatia during the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris June 3, 2012.

PARIS (Reuters) - German 10th seed Angelique Kerber bludgeoned her way into the French Open quarter-finals for the first time with a 6-3 7-5 win over Croatian Petra Martic on Sunday.

Kerber made an impressive run to reach the U.S. Open semi-finals last year and has a chance to match or even improve on that result after dispatching her 21-year-old opponent on a dark and gloomy Suzanne Lenglen court.

With the heavens threatening to open at any time, a muttering Kerber did not want to hang around longer than necessary and yelled out an almighty "Come on" after she fired down a backhand winner on her third matchpoint.

She will next face Italy's Sara Errani, another first-time quarter-finalist, who knocked out 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.

(Reporting by Pritha Sarkar, editing by Clare Fallon)