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)