Mauresmo, Sharapova Choke Leads in Losses at French Open

World No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo's Roland Garros hopes will have to wait another year after the fabled French choker, up a set over No. 16-seeded Czech teen Nicole Vaidisova, won only three more games in a 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-2 collapse.

"It's true, my shots were not so powerful, or long enough," said Mauresmo, who admitted to waiting for her opponent to hand her the win rather than taking it. "I just played with a little less intensity. I expected her to make a few more errors, like she did when we played in Australia."

Other upsets by the numbers Sunday were No. 14 Dinara Safina over Russian countrywoman and No. 4 seed Maria Sharapova 7-5, 2-6, 7-5, and No. 11 Venus Williams outlasting No. 7 Patty Schnyder 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

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.