The biggest shock of day three at the French Open came in the women's draw as Serena Williams crashed out of the tournament in the first round.

Williams was coming into Roland Garros in good form having won the Madrid Masters earlier this month and she was considered to be one of the favourites for the title.

After taking the first set Williams looked on her way to a straight sets victory but the French crowd got behind Virginie Razzano and willed her on.

And the French woman responded as she took Williams to a tie break in that second set. But when Williams opened up a 5-1 lead it looked all but over.

But Razzano took six points on the bounce to take the second set and force the match into a decider, much to the delight of the home crowd.

And Williams' games seemed to disintegrate as Razzano opened up a 5-0 lead before the American finally got on the board.

The first time that Razzano served for the match Williams got back one of the breaks before holding her own serve for 5-3.

But Razzano had another chance in what was to become one of the most exciting single games of tennis of the year.

The game lasted twenty five minutes with Razzano squandered seven match points as she struggled with cramp.

But she finally sealed a 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-3) win at the eighth time of asking.

Williams has never lost in the opening round of a Grand Slam and speaking to the BBC after the match she said: "I just felt I couldn't get a ball in play. When I did, I just felt like I was hitting late and, I mean, how can you hit late on a clay court?

"I was definitely nervous, which I think is healthy, but there are no excuses."

There was no such problems for second seed Maria Sharapova as she sent out a message to the dressing room with a 6-0 6-0 victory over Alexandra Cadantu.

Sharapova defending her Rome crown just a fortnight ago and she needed just forty eight minutes to dispatch Cadantu.

She will now face Ayumi Morita as she saw off Polona Hercog 3-6 6-4 6-3.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw


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