PARIS - The last time Maria Sharapova dropped the opening set of a match 6-0, an Olympic dream was trampled. On Wednesday a similar drubbing provoked a champion's response as the Russian kept alive her hopes of a second successive French Open title alive.

Maria Sharapova of Russia hits a return to Jelena Jankovic of Serbia during their women's singles quarter-final match at the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris June 5, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

Thoughts of her humiliating defeat at Wimbledon by Serena Williams last year returned as the misfiring Sharapova surrendered the first set of her quarter-final against Jelena Jankovic in 28 minutes before recovering to win 0-6 6-4 6-3.

All the women's last-eight ties have been tightly contested, even Victoria Azarenka's 7-6 6-2 defeat of Maria Kirilenko which featured a 76-minute opening set.

That Sharapova pulled round a match in which she managed just 14 points in a first set to move through to a juicy-looking semi-final against Azarenka spoke volumes for the fighting spirit of the four-times grand slam champion.

SIZZLING WINNERS

"I wanted to put that chapter behind me," Sharapova said.

"It was certainly nice to change that around, because I wasn't doing much in that first six games."

World number two Sharapova will be wary of making such a slow start against Azarenka on Thursday.

The Belarussian enjoys a 7-5 career record against Sharapova and says she is beginning to fall in love with clay after reaching her first semi-final at Roland Garros.

"I still don't have any ring on my finger," she said when quizzed about her relationship with the Parisian clay courts.

"But I feel like we made a step forward."

Sharapova made 45 unforced errors against the feisty Jankovic but having worked her way back into the match she showed her class with some sizzling winners when it mattered.

At 3-3 in the third set she stretched her long limbs to hook an impossible-looking backhand winner and then broke serve with a piercing forehand down the line, holding her celebratory fist-clenched salute as courtside cameras clicked their appreciation.

She then fought off a break point in the next game with a nerveless swinging volley off a Jankovic moon ball, breaking the Serbian's spirit in the process as she moved on to reach the semi-finals here for the fourth time in 11 attempts.

"Sometimes you just have to get the job done, and I did today," Sharapova said.