Venus tumbles out of French Open

French Open
Venue: Roland Garros, Paris Date: 23 May-6 June
Coverage: Live video streamed from 1000 BST on BBC Sport website (UK only) and BBC red button; commentary on BBC 5 live sports extra; also live on Eurosport; text commentary on BBC Sport website Details of BBC coverage

Venus has not made the quarter-finals of the French Open since 2006

Second seed Venus Williams' French Open campaign came to an abrupt end with a 6-4 6-3 defeat to Nadia Petrova.

Venus failed to take two chances on the Russian's serve in the opening set and was made to pay for her profligacy as Petrova claimed the solitary break.

The American took an early advantage in the second but was then broken three times in an untypically timid defeat.

Third seed Caroline Wozniacki was made to work hard as she overcame Flavia Pennetta 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (4-7) 6-2.

It was a first win for Petrova over Venus who had lost in the pair's previous four meetings.

The 19th seed, who reached the semi-finals in 2003 and 2005, had to defend three match points in her win over home favourite Aravane Rezai in the previous round and showed impressive mental strength again.

606: DEBATE I have always liked Petrova and it is good to see her playing well again Amazonaria

After inching ahead with a break in the fifth game of the opener, she faced down two break points against her in the eight and tenth to see the set out.

At 30-0 on Williams' serve in the match's final game, it appeared she might have revived her opponent's hopes as she miscued a straightforward smash and netted a forehand.

But the 27-year-old produced a vicious forehand down the line to seal her win at the first time of asking.

"I'm obviously disappointed. I feel like I had a day where I wanted to hit the ball cross-court and it went down the line. It just wasn't a good day," said Williams.

Denmark's Wozniacki eventually outmuscled Pennetta in three hours despite the Italian hitting more than twice the number of winners.

The 19-year-old, who has fallen at the third round in each of her three previous appearances at the tournament, will play Francesca Shiavone in the quarter-finals.

Petrova will play Elena Dementieva in the last eight after her compatriot delivered a sure-footed performance to see off South African qualifier Chanelle Scheepers 6-1 6-3.

World number 131 Scheepers had beaten Gisela Dulko, a player ranked 86 places above her, previously in her campaign as she became the first South African to reach the last 16 since Amanda Coetzer in 1997.

Dementieva lost in the 2004 French Open final to Anastasia Myskina

The 26-year-old may have been given hope of a higher-profile scalp as Denmentieva battled through a calf injury in her win over Aleksandra Wozniak in the previous round.

However, after an exchange of breaks in the opening two games, her ambitions were dented as Dementieva secured three successive breaks to take the opener.

Although the second was a tighter affair, Dementieva, who has won indoors in Paris already this season, secured the breakthrough as Scheepers looped a forehand long.

"After every match you lose, you are always disappointed," said Scheepers.

"It was a really good experience for me, but obviously I wanted to do better."

Schiavone also had to negotiate her way past a potentially dangerous underdog.

Kirilenko had knocked out defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the previous round, but was eventually ground down by Schiavone's accuracy and power as she slipped to a 6-4 6-4 defeat.

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