Stosur scuttles Serena's campaign

Paris: Samantha Stosur of Australia wrecked the Grand Slam hopes of Serena Williams on Wednesday, outplaying the World No.1 and top seed 6-2, 6-7(2), 8-6 in a thrilling Roland Garros quarterfinal. And fourth seed Jelena Jankovic got past Yaroslava Shvedova in an error-strewn match.

It was an accomplished performance from the 26-year-old Gold Coast resident who firstly contained the power hitting of the American and then left her gasping with an array of savvy stroke-making.

She could have finished it in straight sets, getting to within two points of the match on serve at 5-3 in the second, but allowed Williams back into the match before stunning her in the decider.

Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal moved a step nearer recapturing his French Open crown by once again dominating Spanish compatriot Nicolas Almagro 7-6(2), 7-6(3), 6-4 in a quarterfinal match and Austria's Jurgen Melzer defeated Serbian third seed Novak Djokovic 3-6, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(3), 6-4 to reach the semifinals. Melzer will face second seed Nadal for a place in the final. The win put Stosur into the Roland Garros semifinals for the second straight year, equalling her best ever performance in a Grand Slam tournament, and confirmed that she now belongs among the elite in the women's game.

End of the dream

For Williams it was the end of her dream of becoming the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1988 to achieve the calendar year Grand Slam.

Williams had not looked at her best in reaching the last eight but was favoured to overpower the Australian seventh seed.

The top seed had the better of the early exchanges and Stosur had to stave of two points in the fifth game before taking a 3-2 lead.

What happened after that stunned Williams as Stosur used her slice to take the pace off the American's groundstrokes and then stung her with angled drives to both flanks.

Stosur rattled off four games in a row to take the first set.

Williams hung on grimly in the second set despite an alarming number of unforced errors and double faults but at 4-3 to Stosur, the American finally caved in looping an easy backhand wide on the third break point against her.

Stosur got to within two points of the sealing the biggest win of her career at 5-3 and 30-30 but some typical aggression from the American kept the tie alive.

The ensuing tie-break was one-way traffic as a fired-up Williams romped ahead from the first point eventually taking it 7-2.

The third set opened with an exchange of breaks after which serves were well on top until 5-4 for Williams when two bad mistakes from Stosur set up a first match point for the American.

The Australian saved this by forcing Williams into hitting a forehand long and she then levelled at 5-5. Williams had further chances to put the match away but it was Stosur who grabbed the vital break of serve to lead 7-6 and she confidently served the match out.

It was the seventh time in seven matches that Nadal has seen off Amalgro and means that he has reached the semifinals without losing a set yet again.

The four-time former champion was pushed at the start, dropping the first three games of the match, but once he had pocketed the first set on a tie-break, there was little doubt over the outcome.

Almagro, who was seeking to reach the semifinal of a Grand Slam for the first time, was quick out of the blocks going for winners off both flanks, while Nadal worked his way slowly into the match. — Agencies