Federer cruises; Petrova ousts Venus

PARIS: Top seed and defending champion Roger Federer showed no mercy for best friend Stanislas Wawrinka on Sunday when he handed his Olympic gold medal-winning teammate a 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-2 French Open thumping.

Federer was barely troubled by his compatriot, easing to a fifth career win in six clashes in five minutes short of two hours.

In the women's section, second seed Venus Williams crashed to Russia's Nadia Petrova in the fourth round as four-time champion Justine Henin edged a tight battle with Maria Sharapova.

Venus, a runner-up here in 2002, became the biggest casualty of the tournament so far when she lost 6-3, 6-4 to Petrova, the 19th seed, on Court Philippe Chatrier.

Dramatic

“It's the most dramatic Roland Garros of my career,” said 27-year-old Petrova, who completed an epic win over France's Aravane Rezai on Saturday in which she secured victory by winning the deciding set 10-8.

Williams spurned two break points in the first set and Petrova made her pay for her profligacy by converting one of the two break points that came her way to take a one-set lead.

A netted forehand from Petrova, twice a semifinalist, gave Williams an early break of serve in the second set but the Russian broke back and then broke again to take a 4-3 lead.

The Russian was 5-3 and 30-0 up on Williams's serve when she appeared to lose her nerve, miscuing a straightforward smash and netting a forehand, but she recovered to whip a forehand past the American on her first match point.

Petrova will meet compatriot Elena Dementieva, the fifth seed, for a place in the semifinals.

Wozniacki through

Danish third seed Caroline Wozniacki, 19, came through an engaging three-hour scrap with Italy's 14th seed Flavia Pennetta to reach a quarterfinal showdown with another Italian, Francesca Schiavone.

Henin stops Sharapova

Henin displayed all her trademark grit to see off fellow former world number one Sharapova, hitting back from 0-2 and 0-40 down in the last set to claim a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory that takes her into round four.

The match resumed on Sunday after play was suspended at one set all amid fading light on Saturday evening and Henin's victory consigned 12th seed Sharapova to her earliest French Open exit since 2003.

Dementieva swept into the quarterfinals with an emphatic 6-1, 6-3 victory over South African qualifier Chanelle Scheepers. — Agencies

Prefix denotes seeding

Men's singles: Fourth round: 1-Roger Federer bt 20-Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-2; 11-Mikhail Youzhny bt 8-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-2, retd.

Women: Singles: Fourth round: 17-Francesca Schiavone bt 30-Maria Kirilenko 6-4, 6-4; 3-Caroline Wozniacki bt Flavia Pennetta 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 6-2; 5-Elena Dementieva bt Chanelle Scheepers 6-1, 6-3; 19-Nadia Petrova bt 2-Venus Williams 6-4, 6-3. Third round: 22-Justine Henin bt 12-Maria Sharapova 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

Men's doubles: Third round: 3-Lukas Dlouhy & Leander Paes bt Santiago Gonzalez & Travis RettenMayer 6-3, 6-4. Second round: Julien Benneteau & Michael Llodra bt Rohan Bopanna & Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi 7-5, 6-3.

Saturday's results: Men's singles: Third round: Robby Ginepri bt 16-Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-4; 7-Fernando Verdasco bt 30-Philipp Kohlschreiber 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-7(1), 6-4; 19-Nicolas Almagro bt Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr. 6-3, 6-3, 6-4; 24-Thomaz Bellucci bt 14-Ivan Ljubicic 7-6(4), 6-2, 6-4; 2-Rafael Nadal bt 28-Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.

Women: Third round: 7-Samantha Stosur bt Anastasia Pivovarova 6-3, 6-2; 4-Jelena Jankovic bt 27-Alona Bondarenko 6-4, 7-6(3); 23-Daniela Hantuchova bt 16-Yanina Wickmayer 7-5, 6-3; Jarmila Groth bt Anastasia Rodionova 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.

Mixed doubles: First round: Eric Butorac & Yung-Jan Chan bt 1-Mahesh Bhupathi & Liezel Huber 6-1, 6-4 .