Venus Williams beaten by 29th seed

PARIS - Out of breath and out of sorts, Venus Williams played her way right out of the French Open yesterday with her most lopsided Grand Slam loss since 2001.

That the No. 3-seeded Williams would exit in the third round at Roland Garros is not quite so extraordinary, perhaps, considering she has left this particular Grand Slam tournament at this precise stage in four of the last five years.

That Williams would lose the way she did - 6-0, 6-4 - and to the player she did - 29th-seeded Agnes Szavay of Hungary, whose resume boasts a lone major quarterfinal appearance - was anything but ordinary.

"I'm used to beating people, 6-0. I'm not used to my shot not going in and losing a set, 6-0," Williams said. "So it completely was foreign ground for me."

The red clay of Paris often feels that way to the older Williams sister, whose seven Grand Slam singles titles were earned at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Based on seeding and name, her departure qualifies as by far the tournament's most significant.

Hours later, Maria Sharapova appeared headed in the same direction. Like Williams, Sharapova hasn't won the French Open, and she, too, slogged through three sets in each of her first two matches this week, then looked awful at the start yesterday.

But Sharapova, surgically repaired right shoulder and all, did what Williams couldn't: The Russian pulled herself together and moved into the fourth round. Sharapova came back to beat 98th-ranked Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

While Sharapova found herself in yet another two-hour-plus test, No. 1 Dinara Safina of Russia and defending champion Ana Ivanovic of Serbia won easily. Four-time reigning champion Rafael Nadal of Spain made things look simple against former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, beating him, 6-1, 6-3, 6-1. No. 3 Andy Murray of Britain, No. 8 Fernando Verdasco of Spain, No. 10 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, and No. 12 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile also reached the fourth round.

"I dug a nice pothole for myself there. That's kind of what I've been doing the last few rounds," Sharapova said. "I don't think she came up with great shots in order to win that first set. I honestly believe that I was making easy errors."

Williams offered a similar assessment after finishing with more than twice as many unforced errors (23) as winners (10) against Szavay.

"She hung in there. She played really well, but I definitely have to attribute that loss to, you know, to me not being able to execute what I wanted to on the court," Williams said. "It seemed every shot I tried, somehow, it found a way to go out."

Her mother, Oracene Price, offered an explanation: She thought Williams was wiped out after her second-round match began Wednesday, was suspended by darkness, then was completed Thursday. Williams was forced to save a match point before winning that one.

"Sometimes a match is so emotional - kind of draining mentally," Price said. "And then she didn't really get her real rest."