Garbine Muguruza moved a step closer to regaining the title by beating two-time winner Maria Sharapova in a one-sided French Open quarter-final.

The Spanish third seed, who claimed the title in 2016, dominated from the start and ended the Russian 30th seed’s hopes with a 6-2 6-1 victory in 70 minutes.

The reigning Wimbledon champion, 24, has not dropped a set at Roland Garros.

She will play Romania’s world number one Simona Halep or Germany’s Angelique Kerber in the last four.

Both Muguruza and Halep, who is searching for her first Grand Slam title, could finish the tournament as the world number one.

• Live coverage of the quarter-finals
• Live scores, schedule and results
• Murray delays return from surgery

No dream ending for Sharapova

Sharapova was making her comeback at Roland Garros, having been refused a wildcard last year shortly after her return from a 15-month drugs ban.

After a confidence-boosting run to the last four in Rome, she was eyeing her first Grand Slam semi-final since she went on to reach the 2015 Australian Open final.

That never looked like happening as Muguruza dominated from the start.

Sharapova had not played for four days after long-time rival Serena Williams pulled out of their last-16 match with a pectoral injury.

Muguruza, meanwhile, barely played either as Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko pulled out of their fourth-round match with a hip problem after only 20 minutes.

But the lack of court time appeared to affect Sharapova more as she made a sloppy start.

Three double faults from Sharapova in the opener gifted an early advantage to Muguruza, another in the sixth deuce of an 11-minute third game helping the Spaniard go 3-0 ahead.

With momentum behind her, Muguruza continued to dominate and served out to win the opener set in 42 minutes.

Ruthless Muguruza shows pedigree

Muguruza had not enjoyed a successful clay-court season before arriving in Paris, winning just twice on the surface in Madrid and losing her opening matches in Stuttgart and Rome.

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Britain’s Andy Murray has delayed his comeback from surgery but still hopes to play at Wimbledon in July.

The 31-year-old Scot, who has not played since Wimbledon last year, had a hip operation in January.

He had hoped to play in the grass-court Libema Open in the ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, starting on 11 June.

“I am not quite ready to return. I am still aiming to play in the coming weeks, but I want to be 100% when I do return,” said Murray.

“It is with regret that I won’t be ready to play in Hertogenbosch. I was excited to play there for the first time.”

Murray, the British number two, has won Wimbledon twice – in 2013 and 2016 – and this year’s tournament starts on 2 July.

The Fever-Tree Championships at Queen’s in London takes place from 18 to 24 June, and there are grass-court tournaments in the Turkish city of Antalya and Eastbourne in the week before Wimbledon.

“I’ve been out close to a year now, which is a lot longer than me or any of my team expected, but I’m getting closer to playing again,” added Murray.

“I’ve started training a few days ago and am hoping to make my comeback during the grass-court season.”

Earlier this week, his mother Judy told BBC Sport that Andy would not risk playing at Wimbledon unless he was fully fit.

“The most important thing is he gets fit again for the long term and any top athlete would tell you they would not come back until they felt they could give 100%, especially in a major like Wimbledon,” she said.

Analysis

Russell Fuller, BBC tennis correspondent

After withdrawing on the weekend before last year’s US Open, and then heading to Australia in January in a second attempt to make his comeback, Murray has promised not to return this time until he is 100% fit.

And so time is against him – as far as the grass-court season is concerned.

Murray returned to the practice court in late March, following his surgery of 8 January, but was only able to play for about three weeks until his hip problem flared up again.

It is encouraging to hear he is now back on court, but after five weeks on the sidelines – and with the Queen’s Club tournament starting in less than a fortnight – it is hard to see how he can be truly competitive on the grass this year.

Of greater long-term importance, however, is how the hip responds when Murray starts to up the intensity of his on-court sessions, and begins to play practice sets against other ATP players.

Three-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic says he “doesn’t know if I am going to play on grass” after losing in the French Open quarter-finals.

Djokovic was beaten 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 1-6 7-6 (13-11) by Italy’s world number 72 Marco Cecchinato in Paris on Tuesday.

An elbow injury has limited the 12-time Grand Slam champion’s playing time this year, while he was treated on his neck during the defeat by Cecchinato.

The 31-year-old Serb said he did not “want to talk about tennis right now”.

It could mean Djokovic misses Wimbledon, which starts on 2 July.

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• Live scores, schedule and results

Djokovic’s defeat by Cecchinato, who had never won a Grand Slam match until Roland Garros, means he has not reached a semi-final of a major since the 2016 US Open.

He has dropped to 22nd in the rankings – his lowest since October 2006 – after a year which has been disrupted by injury.

The former world number one decided to take time off after retiring from his Wimbledon quarter-final against Tomas Berdych last summer with an elbow injury.

He did not play again until January, when he reached the last 16 of the Australian Open, but then needed a “minor procedure” on the same elbow after losing to Hyeon Chung, ruling him out for two months.

After returning at Indian Wells in March, Djokovic made slow progress in terms of results before warming up for Roland Garros with a run to the Rome quarter-finals.

He has spoken this week about building up his form in order to peak at the Grand Slams and appeared to be doing precisely that when he demolished 30th seed Fernando Verdasco in straight sets in the fourth round.

But Djokovic was shocked to fall at the last-eight stage in Paris.

“Any defeat is difficult in the Grand Slams, especially the one that came from months of build-up,” he said during a spiky news conference which, unusually, took place only about 15 minutes after his defeat.

“I thought I had a great chance to get at least a step further, but wasn’t to be.”

Asked if he was back, Djokovic was blunt.

“I am back in the locker room. That’s where I’m back,” he said.

Djokovic, whose 20th seeding was his lowest at a Slam since the 2006 US Open, has lost in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros for the second successive year.

These defeats have followed his victory in 2016 which sealed a career Grand Slam – only the eighth man to have achieved the feat – and meant he held all four majors at the same time.

This defeat will really sting – analysis

BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller in Paris

Djokovic left Court Suzanne Lenglen and headed straight for the news conference room: not the main one, which has become his natural home, but the secondary one, which was lacking an official microphone and did not have nearly enough room for those wishing to attend.

His comments about the grass season were made in the heat of the moment, but this defeat will really sting.

It is a reminder that for all his progress in recent weeks, he is still a shadow of the man who had won six of the previous eight Grand Slams when he won the title here in 2016.

And, physically, Djokovic still has concerns. The elbow he had minor surgery on after the Australian Open seems much improved, but he once again needed treatment on the shoulder that has caused him intermittent trouble over the past couple of years.

One of the all-time greats

• Djokovic became the eighth man in history to win all four Grand Slam events by winning his first Roland Garros title in 2016, defeating Andy Murray in the final
• It was his 12th Grand Slam crown – to add to his six Australian Open triumphs, three Wimbledon titles and two US Open wins
• It also meant Djokovic held all four Grand Slam titles at the same time following wins at Wimbledon and the US Open in 2015, the 2016 Australian Open and then at Roland Garros
• He lost the 2016 US Open final – his last appearance in a Grand Slam final

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Britain’s Dan Evans progressed to the second round of the Surbiton Trophy, but British number two Heather Watson suffered a surprise defeat.

Top seed Watson was knocked out of the grass-court tournament by fellow Briton Gabriella Taylor, ranked 104 places below her, losing 3-6 6-4 6-3.

Former top-50 player Evans continued his return from a drugs ban by beating Italy’s Thomas Fabbiano 6-4 7-5.

British number four Liam Broady lost to French top seed Jeremy Chardy.

Broady went down 7-6 (10-8) 6-3, before James Ward was defeated 4-6 6-3 6-3 by Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky.

There were victories in the women’s event for Britons Katie Boulter, Katy Dunne, Katie Swan and Harriet Dart.