The Williams bandwagon rolled out of Roland Garros on Friday when sisters Venus and Serena were humbled in the third round by a pair of tenacious opponents who never lost belief. A day after the French Open lost three top-10 seeds, 2002 champion Serena joined them at the exit squeue as he roared and screamed her way to a 6-4 6-4 mauling by Katarina Srebotnik.
Triple champion Rafael Nadal and the man whose ambitions he has thwarted each time in winning those titles, Roger Federer, both made smooth progress into the third round at the French Open on Thursday. Second seed Nadal brushed aside French qualifier Nicolas Devilder 6-4, 6-0, 6-1 to take his Roland Garros record to 23 wins in 23 matches.
Torrential rain brought chaos to the French Open on Tuesday, with six hours of play lost and title favourites Maria Sharapova and Rafael Nadal amongst the victims of the deluge. Only 13 of the day’s planned 72 ties were finished in the three hours of play possible between the downpours, leaving 59 of 128 first-round meetings still to be completed.