FRENCH OPEN 2010: Stosur Shocks Serena

World #1 Serena Williams was bounced from the French Open by World #7 Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-2 6-7(2) 8-6, despite holding a match point at in the 12th game of the third set. It was the first time Williams had lost a grand slam match having had a match point since 1999. Stosur, who had made the semifinals in Paris last year, has now beaten Justine Henin and Williams in consecutive rounds and owns the most clay court match wins of any player on the tour. She will play Jelena Jankovic in the semifinals on Thursday. Serena and her sister Venus Williams are in the women's doubles final o Friday.

The other semifinal will feature Francesca Schiavone and Elena Dementieva. The final four players in the tournament have never won a major title, with Dementieva a 2-time finalist (Roland Garros and US Open 2004)and Jankovic (US Open 2008).

The match between Williams and Stosur was an instant classic. Serena was not playing well in the first set and was spraying the ball, despite not hitting it very hard (for her). Stosur played well within herself and used her excellent first and second serve to great effect, as well as her backhand slice.

In the second set Serena continued to play badly but kept on saving breakpoints with either excellent serves or strong groundstrokes, eventually getting to a tie-break where she dominated after Stosur suffered a bit of a letdown after the Australian had finally broken Serena, served for the match at 5-3 but was quickly broken back. Serena used her reflief to power past Stosur in the tiebreak and broke twice in the third set but each time Stosur was able to break back. Then, at 5-6 Serena had a break point which was a match point and Stosur played an excellent point, but Serena had chances for a forehand cross-court winner when instead she went down the line and pushed the ball just over the baseline. In Serena's next service game at 6-6 for the first time in 4 service games instead of winning easily she faced two breakpoints and Stosur played two inspired points in a row to get the break. On her second chance to serve out the match, the one-time doubles specialist did not falter and sent the World #1 packing.