Patty Schnyder’s French Open campaign has ended at the hands of Venus Williams, going down in three sets 4-6 6-3 6-2 in a match that lasted just under two hours. Williams prevailed in the fourth-round match to extend her stranglehold over the Swiss player to an unblemished 8-0 head-to-head lead.
The first set see-sawed with only three holds of serve, before fewer unforced errors from the Schnyder racquet resulted in a 6-4 one-set lead. However, the joy and lead for the 7th seed was short-lived, as Williams found range on her groundstrokes and netplay to outplay Schnyder and hold her to only one unconverted breakpoint opportunity throughout the remainder of the match.

Schnyder was one of three seeded players to lose today despite outranking their opponents, as No. 1 seed Amelie Mauresmo surprisingly bowed out to Nicole Vaidisova, while Dinara Safina outlasted Russian compatriot Maria Sharapova, and will now begin grass-court preparations ahead of Wimbledon, which begins later this month.

In just forty-five minutes, Martina Hingis thumped Ivana Lisjak of Croatia, 6-1, 6-1, to advance in the fourth round of the French Open.

Hingis made a ligthning start when she won the first 4 games of the first set, never giving Lisjak any chance to get break or to hold serve. In a show of vintage form, Hingis reduced Lisjak into a ball retriever around the court, and in the process, overwhelming the young Croat. Lisjak somehow found her game and was able to hold her serve and win the fifth game. It did not take long for Hingis to wrap up the first set by breaking Lisjak’s serve and winning the first set, 6-1, in just twenty-one minutes.
In the second set, Hingis held her serve before Lisjak held her own to even the score at one all. Hingis went on to win the next five games to win the second set, 6-1 in just twenty-four minutes.

Hingis next plays Shahar Peer of Israel who trounced Elena Dementieva, after recovering from a set down.

In an unexpectedly easy third round match, Myskina beat Ana Ivanovic in straight sets 6-2 6-3 on Court 1 at Roland Garros. Both players reached that round without losing a set and Ivanovic was the favourite for the bookies.

Myskina had a great start into the match when she broke the young Serbian right away. Despite Ivanovic´s trademark serves - she´s the stats leader in fast serves with 194 km/h (!) - Myskina broke the young player again in the 5th game to gain a 5-1 lead. Ivanovic managed to win another game but Nastya took the set after 28 minutes 6-2.

Ivanovic hit too many unforced errors, she was not moving well and therefore she was an easy opponent for the Russian today. Nastya hit steady groundstrokes and was never put under pressure by Ivanovic in ralles especially since she was beautifully mixing up the shots, causing Ivanovic sometimes to run around like a rabbit on the other side.

The second set resembled the first one when Nastya again broke Ivanovic and then hardly ever looked back. The Russian had a chance to break the Serbian in the 7th game at 4-2 but could not convert any of the three. However at 5-3 on Ivanovic´s serve, Nastya rallied to three match points. The Russian converted her second matchpoint when Ivanovic put a forehand outsides the line. Nastya was totally excited after the matchpoint, she had a huge smile when she ran to the net before getting another bear hug by Boris Jelzin who is in France just for the tournament. The former politician even had Nastya signed his hat.

This is clearly Nastya´s best match of the year so far, staying focused throughout the whole match, hitting more winners than her opponent, having a first serve percentage of 71. The Russian was covering the court very well and it was a pleasure to see that her great sense of anticipation came back today.

Myskina will need the same good game when she wants to advance to the quarters as Justine Henin-Hardenne will be her next opponent. It is the match between the two past French Open champs and it´s the first meeting since the awful Olympics´04 semis which Nastya lost 5-7 7-5 6-8 despite a 5-1 lead in the last set. Overall the players have met 8 times already. The Belgian leads 6-2 and is generally considered as one of Nastya´s most feared opponents (the other two being Kim Clijsters and Amelie Mauresmo). Henin-Hardenne will be the favourite in this match especially on clay. On the other side, Nastya always managed to trouble the former number one as their games basically neutralize each other. Check back for the time and date of that awesome 4th round match up!

History didn’t repeat itself in Paris today, as top seed Amélie Mauresmo got through the third round with a 6-3 6-3 victory over Jelena Jankovic and reached the round of the last 16 where she will face Nicole Vaidisova next.

During the whole match Mauresmo seemed to be very focused and at every point in control of the match.

“Everything went fine today. My game is coming together.I’m much more satisfied than after my first two matches. I need to get stronger round after round and that’s what I am doing.” Mauresmo commented her easy day in the office after her victory.

Mauresmo who has already won 3 tournaments in 2006 (including her first grand slam title at the Australian Open), will next face Czech Nicole Vaidisova.

“I know her pretty well. I’ll have to knock her out of her stride,” the french champion commented her next opponent who she beat at the Australian Open earlier this year.

After two quarterfinal and a third round defeat last year, Mauresmo hopes to win some more matches in front of her home crowd.

“I now have more experience, it’s my 12th Roland Garros. And my game is also better,” she said about her appearance in Roland Garros this year.

Elena Dementieva once again had to turn a match around this time beating Viktorya Kutuzova from Ukraine after losing the first set 6-3.

Due to lack of natural light the scheduled match for Phillipe Chatrier on Thursday had to be suspended at 5-1 for Kutuzova. Today, the match was resumed and, before claiming the first set, the Ukrainian still let two games away as Dementieva was starting to make her trademark comebacks. But after losing those two games the Kutuzova drew first blood 6-3. But Dementieva had yet to florish. She sailed away with the second set claiming it without the loss of a game, which included failing to double-fault a single time during the second set.

In the decisive set, a view Dementieva is too familiar with, there were an amazing nine breaks of serve untl 5-4 when Dementieva finally stepped it up and closed the day 3-6, 6-0, 6-4. It marked the eleventh time Dementieva was pushed to a third set this season and the seventh time she lost the fist set just to win the last two. Her only loss in a three setter this year came while facing Clijsters in Antwerp, when after winning the first set, Dementeva failed to win any of the next two sets.

Next up for Dementieva will be red hot Israeli Shahar Peer. The teenager has has some terrific results this year including three titles, her last coming last week in Istanbul where she beat Myskina in the third set tiebreak.

Peer has yet to drop a set and has only lost seven games so far in the tournament which incudes victories over Olga Savchuck and Tszvetana Pironkova in the first and second rounds respectively. Peer is currently at her best ranking ever so Elena should not understimate her opponent for tomorrow.

The match between these two players is scheduled for tomorrow, on court one as the third match. Action begins at 11 am Paris time.

Also in the doubles update Dementieva and Pennetta were sent packing today by the team made by Meilen Tu and Maret Ani. After claiming the first set, Dementieva/Penneta seemed to go on a mental holiday as their opponents ousted them in the following sets by 6-4.

Already in the 4th round are world number one Amelie Mauresmo, who is facing Vaidisova for a berth in the quarterfinals, Venus Williams will battle Patty Schnyder, Dinara Safina will play her countrywoman Maria Sharapova, while Kuznetsova gets Schiavone. On the top half of the draw matches picking the rest of the field for the 4th round are played tomorrow with special emphasis on the macth above mentioned of Dementieva versus Peer, Ivanovic versus Anastasia Myskina and Kim Clijsters versus Medina Grrigues. Kirilenko veruss Groenefeld also promises to be a very intriguing and thrilling match.