UPDATE 1-Tennis-Open-Sharapova thrives on underdog status
* Sharapova fights back to advance to fourth round
* French crowd love the underdogs, she says
(Adds details, quotes)
PARIS, May 29 (Reuters) - Being the underdog suits Maria Sharapova at the French Open, where she enjoyed being backed by the fickle Parisian crowd in a 1-6 6-3 6-4 third round victory over Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova on Friday.
In recent years the Russian has endured a torrid relationship with the Roland Garros fans and was famously booed off court when she was knocked out in 2007 and 2008.
But no longer the world number one, the 102nd ranked Russian seems to have become a firm favourite as she is on a comeback trail following a nine-month layoff with a career-threatening shoulder injury.
"Allez Maria!" the fans screamed as they cheered her on while she gasped for breath after running down many of her opponent's cunning drop shots. Continued...
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