SERENA WILLIAMS trudged out of Roland Garros yesterday after her French Open dreams were pounded into the red clay by a tenacious Slovenian who never lost belief.
Less than 24 hours after the tournament saw the defeat of three top-10 seeds, including David Nalbandian and James Blake, the American joined them at the exit queue as she roared and screamed her way to a 6-4, 6-4 mauling by Katarina Srebotnik in the third round.
"I knew it was going to be a tough match but what can I say? She just played unbelievable today," said Williams, who had gone into the match with a 3-0 record against Srebotnik.
The fifth seed's defeat also meant a new name would be engraved on the Suzanne Lenglen Cup next week as she was the only former champion in the women's draw.
Williams's loss cleared the way for a final showdown between Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic, the top two seeds, who withstood some fierce resistance yesterday before marching on.
An erratic Ivanovic overcame a slight wobble in the first set before downing Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-1 to reach the fourth round, while Sharapova huffed and puffed her way to a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 second-round win over the American Bethanie Mattek.
But no amount of on-court dramatics could save Williams.
On the eve of the championships the 2002 winner had declared herself "100 per cent fit", but yesterday it was Srebotnik who always looked in better shape to advance.
She had the younger of the Williams sisters on the back foot from the start, breaking her with a string of stinging winners, and by the closing stages of the set, things went from bad to worse for the former world number one.
After she smashed an easy overhead straight into the net, the fans gasped in disbelief while a stunned Serena leaned her forehead on the end of her racket as she stared into the ground.
Moments later the set had vanished from her grasp.
She could have made amends at 4-3 up in the second as she had break point but a bizarre choice of shot, choosing to hit a drop shot when she had an open court at her disposal, put paid to those hopes. Srebotnik punished Williams's lack of judgement by sealing the match two games later.
"Today, I woke up and knew I had really nothing to lose so I just took my chances," said Srebotnik.
"I'm really happy that today it turned my way," added Srebotnik, who made it through to the last 16 of a slam for only the second time in 35 attempts.
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