PARIS, June 3 (Reuters) – No man has won four grand slams in
a row for 43 years and Novak Djokovic came close to finding out
just how difficult pulling off the feat is when he diced with
defeat before conjuring a great escape at the French Open on
Sunday.

Wimbledon, U.S. Open and Australian Open champion Djokovic
appeared to be heading for his earliest grand-slam defeat in
three years before he hauled himself back from two-sets-to-love
down for only the third time in his career to subdue Italian
Andreas Seppi 4-6 6-7 6-3 7-5 6-3 and reach the last eight.

PARIS (Reuters) – There will be no clay-kissing for Francesca Schiavone this time round as the Italian’s French Open love affair ended early but a tormented Mikhail Youzhny melted hearts by scribbling “SORRY!” into the red clay after a truly forgettable date on Saturday.

Two years after she memorably dropped down to kiss the clay court at Roland Garros following her unexpected triumph, Schiavone was licking her wounds after she lost her chance to reach a third successive Paris final with a 3-6 6-3 8-6 third-round humbling by little-known American Varvara Lepchenko.

PARIS (Reuters) – There will be no clay-kissing for Francesca Schiavone this time round as the Italian’s French Open love affair ended early but a tormented Mikhail Youzhny melted hearts by scribbling “SORRY!” into the red clay after a truly forgettable date on Saturday.

Two years after she memorably dropped down to kiss the clay court at Roland Garros following her unexpected triumph, Schiavone was licking her wounds after she lost her chance to reach a third successive Paris final with a 3-6 6-3 8-6 third-round humbling by little-known American Varvara Lepchenko.

PARIS (Reuters) – If there was any doubt about how tormented Mikhail Youzhny felt as he was being bullied into a 6-0 6-2 6-2 submission by David Ferrer at the French Open, the single word “SORRY!” etched into the red clay by the Russian said it all on Saturday.

A disbelieving Youzhny was red-faced after winning only six points, all on his own serve, during the first eight games of the third-round contest against a man he had beaten four times in six previous meetings.

PARIS, June 2 (Reuters) – If there was any doubt about how
tormented Mikhail Youzhny felt as he was being bullied into a
6-0 6-2 6-2 submission by David Ferrer at the French Open, the
single word “SORRY!” etched into the red clay by the Russian
said it all on Saturday.

A disbelieving Youzhny was red-faced after winning only six
points, all on his own serve, during the first eight games of
the third-round contest against a man he had beaten four times
in six previous meetings.

PARIS (Reuters) – A flat-footed Ana Ivanovic and an out-of-sorts Polish third seed Agnieszka Radwanska bade an early farewell to a cool and blustery Roland Garros on Friday.

Roger Federer and Nicolas Mahut, however, were soon turning up the heat as they thrilled the purists with a delightful exhibition of shot-making before the Swiss tactician brokered a 6-3 4-6 6-2 7-5 win to book his place in the last 16.

PARIS (Reuters) – A flat-footed Ana Ivanovic and a completely out-of-sorts Polish third seed Agnieszka Radwanska bade an early farewell to a cool and blustery Roland Garros on Friday.

For a woman who showed no weaknesses while dispatching Venus Williams in the previous round, Radwanska unusually suffers stage fright when she comes face-to-face with 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.

PARIS (Reuters) – The whole world has gone gaga over Twitter but Maria Sharapova thinks she is too boring to become a ‘Twit’.

“I think it’s too much for me. I mean, I’m bored with myself on a daily basis, and I think if I’m bored, like eating a bowl of pasta, I don’t need to let the world know that I’m at this restaurant eating a bowl of pasta,” the richest woman in sport told reporters referring to the social networking site.

PARIS, June 1 (Reuters) – The whole world has gone gaga over
Twitter but Maria Sharapova thinks she is too boring to become a
‘Twit’.

“I think it’s too much for me. I mean, I’m bored with myself
on a daily basis, and I think if I’m bored, like eating a bowl
of pasta, I don’t need to let the world know that I’m at this
restaurant eating a bowl of pasta,” the richest woman in sport
told reporters referring to the social networking site.

PARIS (Reuters) – A flat-footed Ana Ivanovic and a completely out-of-sorts Polish third seed Agnieszka Radwanska bade an early farewell to a cool and blustery Roland Garros on Friday.

For a woman who showed no weaknesses while dispatching Venus Williams in the previous round, Radwanska unusually suffers stage fright when she comes face-to-face with 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.