Russia's Dinara Safina reacts as she defeats compatriot Maria Sharapova during their fourth round match of the French Open tennis tournament, Monday June 2, 2008 at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris.
Photo: AP, AP
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Sharapova Out Of Roland Garros
Top-seed Maria Sharapova of Russia suffered a shocking defeat to compatriot Dinara Safina during the fourth round match of the French Open tennis tournament, Monday June 2, 2008, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris. Safina next plays compatriot Elena Dementieva. In the men’s section, Swiss star Roger Federer made another step towards victory.
Despite all efforts to be in-form for the main tournament of the clay season and the only one of all Grand Slam titles that she hasn’t won yet, Sharapova was far from her best at the opening three matches at Roland Garros. Her chances at the tournament could have been evaluated after a battle against a really strong opponent, someone like Dinara Safina in this season’s variant.
The thing that the yesterday’s match would be tough became clear from the very beginning. Unable to control her anxiety, Safina lost the first set on the tie-break although she had the advantage of 6-4.
Safina was in control at the start of the second set, but Sharapova gained momentum after the rainy break and it looked like she would finally prevail in the second set contrary to her general disliking of the clay surface. Safina battled back from 2-5 to set another tie-break, where she again had to catch up from the same 2-5.
The score was mirror 5-2 in the decider, but Sharapova failed to repeat Safina's scenario, yielding the match to Dinara.
Safina next plays compatriot Elena Dementieva, who advanced to the last eight after defeating another Russian, Vera Zvonareva. “It’s as if some championship of Russia held in Paris for some reason,” said Dementieva, for whom Safina will be the third Russian opponent in a row.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 03, 2008
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