Everett, Wash.
Published: Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Sharapova loses match point, eliminated from French Open

By Chuck Culpepper
Special to the Los Angeles Times

 PARIS -- In a fairly gripping fracas on Court Suzanne Lenglen, No. 1 Maria Sharapova went out of the French Open in the fourth round Monday despite having a match point and a 5-2 lead in the second set against fellow Russian Dinara Safina, the hottest player on tour.

So rich in twists was the match that Safina herself, No. 14 in the world after beating three top-10 players last month in Berlin, fumbled a 6-4 lead in the first-set tiebreaker before winning, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-2, and falling to her knees in joy after Sharapova's last cross-court forehand sailed long and wide.

As if the tennis weren't enough, the match also proved packed with histrionics, from thrown rackets (Safina, occasionally) to close line calls (Safina asking repeatedly for the chair umpire to check) and some audible profanity (Sharapova once encouraging herself during the third set, "Kick her ... !").

In the end, though, the younger and more famous Sharapova, 21, gave warm congratulations to the older and more mercurial Safina, 22, and left the only Grand Slam tournament she has not won. Safina moved on to play another Russian, Elena Dementieva, in the quarterfinals.

That didn't appear to be in the offing during the second set, as Safina berated herself and smacked herself hard in the shoes with her racket while falling behind 5-3, having already lost the first set in nightmarish fashion and committed some racket abuse at 6-6 in the tiebreaker, before a rain delay halted things for an hour at 7-6 (4), 0-1 to Sharapova.

In the 5-3 game, Sharapova, serving, had her only match point, and shrieked louder than ever on each shot of the rally to mark the occasion. But Safina played astute, aggressive tennis on the point, winning it with a backhand down the line that Sharapova could not touch.

She won the next two points and then her serve to work toward the tiebreaker, demonstrating she could hit most every shot in the book so long as she could get to them with her wanting mobility. She won the last five points of the second-set tiebreaker by keeping the imperious No. 1 player under enough pressure to commit a batch of errors.

Then Safina, the younger sister of two-time Grand Slam champion Marat Safin, held a 3-2 lead in the fifth set when Sharapova, serving, cracked two winners to fend off two break points. At that point, as the crowd cheered her second winner, Sharapova implored herself with the R-rated outburst and only lapsed dramatically from there.

She sent a weak backhand into the net and a backhand wide to lose that game for 4-2, then claimed just two of the final 10 points played. Serving to stay in the match at 2-5, she began with a double-fault.

that signaled she would not follow up her title won in January at the Australian Open with a championship here.
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