Russian fourth seed Elena Dementieva, the 2004 Roland Garros runner-up, was sent crashing out of the French Open in the third round on yesterday by Australia’s Samantha Stosur.
The 30th seed won 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam for only the second time in her career and the first time on the testing clay courts of the French capital.
Stosur will now tackle either Italy’s Tathiana Garbin or France’s Virginie Razzano. A victory would make her the first Australian woman to make the quarter-finals at the French Open since Jelena Dokic in 2002.
The powerful Gold Coast resident, who lost to Dementieva in the third round of the Australian Open this year, took the first set with a trademark, big forehand before both players struggled with the windy conditions inside Court Philippe Chatrier.
The first four games of the second set all went against serve until Dementieva made the crucial break in the 10th game to level the tie.
But 25-year-old Stosur raced away in the decider taking a 4-0 lead before wrapping up the match with another power-packed crosscourt winner as Dementieva joined third seed Venus Williams as a major third round casualty.
Svetlana Kuznetsova, the Russian seventh seed, continued her low-profile progress through the tournament with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Hungary’s Melinda Czink.
Kuznetsova, a former US Open champion and who was runner-up in Paris in 2006, has lost just 11 games on her way to the fourth round for a sixth successive year.
The 23-year-old will face either Polish 12th seed Agnieszka Radwanska or unseeded Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko for a place in the quarter-finals.
In women’s doubles yesterday, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai of China defeated Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, and Ai Sugiyama of Japan 6-3, 7-5.
Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung and partner Sania Mirza of India made a surprisingly early exit from the women’s doubles on Friday, losing to the Radwanska sisters, Urszula and Agnieszka in their second round match.
Chuang and Mirza lived up to their No. 14 seeding by claiming the first set 6-4 before the Polish siblings edged a close second set, winning a tie-break 7-5.
The Poles took the deciding set 6-3 to set up a clash with No. 2 seeds Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic and Lisa Raymond of the US.
In men’s play, Andy Roddick produced a sizzling display to reach the fourth round of the French Open for the first time.
He finally climbed over that hump with a brilliantly crafted 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 win over Marc Gicquel, holding his arms aloft in triumph as he watched the Frenchman’s service return sail over his head on match point.
Earlier, Tommy Haas of Germany defeated Jeremy Chardy of France 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
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