A humble Russian teenager smashed the Williams sisters’ Grand Slam stranglehold on Sunday, ousting Venus from the fourth round of the French Open. As Serena Williams sat stony-faced in the crowd, Vera Zvonareva played the match of her life to beat third seed Venus 2-6, 6-2, 6-4. Defeat for the American rules out a fifth successive Grand Slam final between the siblings. Top seed and defending champion Serena had beaten Venus in the last four finals. The French crowd rose as one and saluted the 18-year-old as she clinched the stunning win after an hour and 58 minutes of centre court drama. Paes, Bhupathi to meet in quarters Former teammates Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will face off in a quarter-final showdown of the men’s doubles event of the French Open after both of them comfortably won their third round matches today with their respective partners. Bhupathi combined with Max Mirnyi of Belarus to beat the Czech pair of Frantisek Cermak and Leos Friedl 6-3, 6-2. Later, the fifth seeded pair of Paes and David Rikl of Czech Republic defeated the team of Joshua Eagle of Australia and Jared Palmer of United States, the ninth seeds, 6-2, 6-0. Paes and Bhupathi had together won this tournament in 1999 when they reached the finals of all the four Grand Slam events. However, India had a disappointing day in the junior section with all the three players making first round exits. Sanaa Bhambri was the first one to go out when she lost to Marine Giraud of France 7-5, 6-2 in the girls’ section. Somdev Dev Verman gave a tough fight to 16th seed Leonardo Kirche of Brazil in the boys’ section before losing 6-1, 3-6, 6-4. Sania Mirza was defeated by Heidi el Tabakh of Egypt who carved out a 6-1, 6-4 victory. (PTI) “If you go to the court and believe you can win, you can win,” Zvonareva said with tears in her eyes. “I did it.” Playing down the victory that gives hope to all who had begun considering the Williams sisters invincible, the Russian said: “I was just playing my game. Zvonareva had made her Grand Slam debut here last year and on that occasion was beaten by Serena in the fourth round. Sunday’s victory was sweet revenge and, having said previously that her most memorable experience was losing to fellow Russian Nadia Petrova 6-0, 6-0 aged eight-years-old, the teenager may now want to think again. Serena earlier reached the last eight with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Ai Sugiyama of Japan and will next meet Amelie Mauresmo, the French fifth seed who beat Spain’s Magui Serna 6-1, 6-2. One American who had no intention of being upstaged was Andre Agassi and the seasoned warrior marched straight into the quarter-finals with a performance of supreme confidence. (Reuters)
