Mauresmo, Sharapova Blow Leads, Exit French Open

Sharapova and Safina both bludgeoned the ball with one-dimensional ferocity throughout the contest, with disastrous results anytime a dropshot or slice was attempted.

"She picked up her game a little bit and mine went down," said Sharapova, who led 4-0 and 5-1 in the third set before mentally folding, blaming the loss on a lack of competition. "I really think it has to do with the fact that I haven't had those kind of tough matches in the past few weeks and it's hard to come into a Grand Slam [like that]. It's in your hands and you've got to finish it off, all of a sudden you start thinking. That's what happened today."

Struggling to avoid the world No. 1's fate, No. 8 Svetlana Kuznetsova came back from a set down, defeating No. 9 Francesca Schiavone 1-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Advancing comfortably were No. 2 Kim Clijsters, rolling past No. 15 Daniela Hantuchova 6-1, 6-4; No. 13 Anna-Lena Groenefeld defeating No. 32 Gisela Dulko 6-3, 6-4; and No. 5 Justine Henin-Hardenne easing past former French champ and No. 10 seed Anastasia Myskina 6-1, 6-4.

One match was called due to darkness, with No. 12 Martina Hingis and No. 31 Shahar Peer at one-set all.
 
On court Monday at Roland Garros for the women are the resumption of the Hingis-Peer match, and then doubles-only third-round action in (1) Raymond/Stosur vs. (16) Safina/Vinci, (5) Hantuchova/Sugiyama vs. Bartoli/Peer, Ani/Tu vs. Dechy/Zvonareva, and the most-watchable (11) Dulko/Kirilenko vs. Russians Chakvetadze/Vesnina.

Mens Five-Set Wins En Vogue Sunday at French Open

Five-set emotional wins were the order of the day Sunday at the French Open, with three players going the distance in advancing into the quarterfinals: No. 12-seeded Croat Mario Ancic coming from 1-2 sets down to oust No. 7 Tommy Robredo; No. 4 Ivan Ljubicic coming from 0-2 sets down to defeat unseeded Argentine Juan Monaco; and No. 25 Gael Monfils thrilling the French home crowd with a 6-4 closing-set win over No. 8-seeded American James Blake.

Blake's loss dropped him to a heartbreaking 0-8 career record in five-set matches, and showed that aside from his claycourt progress in 2006 and cracking the Top 10, he has yet to prove a champion in the big moments in big matches.

"A couple times at, what was it, 4-all in the fifth, I had two volleys I didn't put away," said Blake, who folded on his service game at 4-4 in the fifth, with a double fault and numerous unforced errors. "Part of that is the effect his speed has on the match and me just not finishing the points. So that's how he wins a lot of points. He's also got a huge serve. So he just has a ton of talent."

In the fifth set of the Ancic-Robredo encounter both players sought help from the trainer, with the Croat at one point throwing up water he had just drank.

World No. 1 Roger Federer continued his hopeful march to the final and a potential fourth consecutive Slam title, dispatching of No. 20-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.

"I already felt much more comfortable going into this match today," said Federer, who will next play Ancic. "I felt very calm when I was warming up. When I started serve, right away I hit an ace. I already had a good feeling about today. I think that's just by being here for so long now, playing some good matches early on. I feel like I'm really into the tournament."
 
No. 6 seed Nikolay Davydenko also advanced with a four-set win over former French winner and No. 10 seed Gaston Gaudio, and No. 4 David Nalbandian straight-setted Argentine Martin Vassallo Arguello.

The only doubles upset of the day occurred when No. 11-seeded Austrians Knowle/Melzer conceded a walkover against the Austrian/German team of Peya/Phau.

On court Monday at Roland Garros are (2) Nadal vs. (14) Hewitt, (4) Ljubicic vs. Ramirez Hidalgo, (25) Gael "Force" Monfils vs. Djokovic, Al Martin vs. Julien "United Colors of" Benneteau, and in men's doubles quarterfinal action (15) Pavel/Waske vs. Bhupathi/Xavier "X-Man" Malisse, and Czechs (13) Dlouhy/Vizner vs. Peya/Phau.

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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Justine Henin-Hardenne has won 19 of her last 20 at Roland Garros...Why did James Blake keep rushing the net at the end of the match with Gael Monfils? According to Blake, because he thought Monfils would be tired and would be too nervous to make the pass. On that wisdom, Blake falls to 0-8 in five-set matches...19-year-olds Gael Monfils and Novak Djokovic last met in the US Open first round where Djokovic won 7-5 in the fifth after taking a 20 minute or so injury timeout for cramps at 4-3 in the final set...David Nalbandian has reached the QFs or better at his last four Slams...Patty Schnyder has never beaten Venus Williams in eight tries...Maria Sharapova lost six straight games to Dinara Safina to end the match after leading 5-1...Donald Young dropped the first set of his first-round French junior match to some Swiss kid 6-1 then gets his grove on, winning the next 12 games to win 1-6, 6-0, 6-0...How come players that were really no good a few years ago -- or decent but not great -- are suddenly getting far in events? Witness older players like Alberto Martin, Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, Martin Vasallo Arguello and even James Blake, Ivan Ljubicic, Dick Norman and on and on. Are these guys playing better -- well, Blake is for sure -- or are they lucky, or is everyone on dirt beside Roger Federer/Rafael Nadal just that crappy right now?...Rafael Nadal has never beaten Lleyton Hewitt (0-3). That will change on Monday...Roger Federer has won 25 consecutive Slam matches, tying him for second place with Pete Sampras and Jimmy Connors on the Open Era list behind Rod Laver with 29 in 1969-70...From Rafael Nadal blogging for the ATP website: "Oh, one thing I forgot to say is that I had a little scare today, nothing serious and not as bad as when I had the wrong strings a few days ago. When we picked up Toni I was in the first row of seats in the minivan. And in moving to the back row of the minivan I hit my shin on the van door. It hurt a bit and there is a bit of a bump, but it's nothing serious."...From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Charlie Bricker, who says James Blake's choke takes him off his favorites list, and at Wimbledon likes -- get ready -- Dmitry Tursunov over Andy Roddick: "I was prepared to put James Blake on my list of five top candidates to win Wimbledon, but his play inside the service line down the stretch of Sunday's loss to the hugely talented Gael Monfils changed my mind. I still think he's going to hurt a few people at Wimbledon because the man is totally adaptable. He already has become an extremely dangerous opponent on clay, and give Monfils the applause he deserves. He's a monster talent. But Blake still had chances to win this five-setter. The gaffed volley on break point in the ninth game of the fifth set doomed him. It was one of those belly button shots -- right at you. You deaden the racket and stop-volley it for a winner. James tried to guide it off to his left, even though there wasn't much room there. Oh, well. Live and learn. Next time he'll do the right thing. Right now, my top five Wimbledon men, in order: (1) Roger Federer, (2) Dmitry Tursunov, (3) Andy Roddick, (4) Mario Ancic, (5) Lleyton Hewitt. That's right, Tursunov. I'm keeping Blake, David Nalbandian and Nicolas Kiefer on my backup short list. Everything is subject to change."...David Nalbandian is not a big fan of the courts this year at Roland Garros: "There's not a lot of dirt, and you slip all the time. It's a disaster. It's so bad you can't play good shots. You are never too safe on your feet to be able to play your shots properly."...Serb Novak Djokovic has brushed off talk that he will abandon his home country to play Davis Cup for Britain: "It's just rumors. The people were very kind to us after the Davis Cup. We spoke to them. Nothing serious really. We didn't have any serious conversation about a passport."