Venus ousted in straight sets; Sharapova wins thrilling three-setter

On Day 6 in Paris, Venus Williams had a bad day, as she failed to enter the second week of the tournament after being ousted by Agnes Szavay, while Maria Sharapova came back from a set down to beat Yaroslava Shvedova.

No. 29 seed Szavay demolished the 3rd seeded American in easy straight sets, 60 64.

"I had a tough day, and I didn't get the ball in the court, and that didn't help me at all," said Williams, who did recover somewhat in the second set, holding a point for a 5-3 lead at one point. "I'm used to beating people 6-0. I'm not used to my shots not going in and losing a set 6-0. So it was completely foreign ground for me. I had a lot of struggles out there and you've got to play well. Today it just didn't come together for me."

"This may be the biggest win of my career. It's for sure one of the biggest ones," Szavay said. "I just kept playing my game and always concentrated on the next point, then I realized I had match point. I started to think, 'Oh my God, I have match point against Venus.' But suddenly it was over and I won the match."

Sharapova lost the first set with a very easy score, but then regained her game and came back to win with a score of 16 63 64.

"I dug a nice pothole for myself there. That's kind of what I've been doing the last few rounds," Sharapova said on the slow start. "I got rid of all of those errors and started playing better. Even if I'm playing horribly in the beginning of the match, I know it's not over 'til it's over. I've given myself a chance to play another match. That's the only thing I can ask for now."

No. 1 seed Dinara Safina easily ousted her opponent Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 62 60.

"We had a few very tough games at the start but when I broke her I started playing much more aggressively, and then I was dominating," said Safina, the first player in 15 years to lose less than five games en route to the fourth round. "I just try to be dominant on the court. If I don't, the other player will take their chances and it'll be 50/50. But if I am I know it's not easy to handle my level."

Friday, May 29, 2009

Singles - Third Round

(1) Dinara Safina (RUS) d. (27) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) 62 60

(29) Agnes Szavay (HUN) d. (3) Venus Williams (USA) 60 64

(8) Ana Ivanovic (SRB) d. (32) Iveta Benesova (CZE) 60 62

(20) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) d. Gisela Dulko (ARG) 64 62

(25) Li Na (CHN) d. Olga Govortsova (BLR) 75 61

Aravane Rezai (FRA) d. (Q) Michelle Larcher de Brito (POR) 76(3) 62

Maria Sharapova (RUS) d. (Q) Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) 16 63 64

Postponed due to darkness

(9) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) ties (22) Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP) 57 75