diff --git a/_pytest/config.py b/_pytest/config.py
index 0d9beb3d3..f4be2d062 100644
--- a/_pytest/config.py
+++ b/_pytest/config.py
@@ -705,8 +705,7 @@ class Config(object):
     def _preparse(self, args, addopts=True):
         self._initini(args)
         if addopts:
-            env_addopts = os.environ.get('PYTEST_ADDOPTS', '')
-            args[:] = env_addopts.replace('"', '').split() + args
+            args[:] = shlex.split(os.environ.get('PYTEST_ADDOPTS', '')) + args
             args[:] = self.getini("addopts") + args
         self._checkversion()
         self.pluginmanager.consider_preparse(args)