French Open: Sharapova, Nadal advance; Safin loses

On a day of adieus at the French Open, Maria Sharapova managed to stick around.
Trailing through most of the third set in her toughest test since shoulder surgery, Sharapova pulled out a 6-2, 1-6, 8-6 victory over 11th-seeded Nadia Petrova on Wednesday to reach the third round at Roland Garros, her return to Grand Slam tennis.
"I kind of started stumbling away. Things went in the wrong direction," said Sharapova, who missed the US Open and Australian Open. "I was just glad I could pick myself up and keep fighting."
That she did: Five times, Petrova was one point away from serving for the match. But Sharapova didn't allow her to convert those chances.
"She really showed, even though she has been out for a while, she's willing to compete till the end," Petrova acknowledged.
Sharapova's French Open continues, as does Rafael Nadal's winning streak at Roland Garros — which he extended to a tournament-record 30 matches — but there will be no more trips to the clay-court major for Marat Safin or Fabrice Santoro.
Both are retiring at season's end, and both bowed out Wednesday, albeit in quite contrasting ways, which is fitting, given their polar-opposite styles of play and personalities.
The big-hitting, loud-talking Safin succumbed after a 4½-hour, five-set bit of theater; the spin-mixing, gentlemanly Santoro played all of eight minutes to conclude his loss to Christophe Rochus in a match suspended the night before by darkness.
"My game style was out of date when I arrived on the tour. I got on the tour in the '90s, and my style dated back to the '70s," said Santoro, who tied a French Open record by playing in his 20th French Open. "So when I arrived, I was, you know, 20 years late already."
Safin, meanwhile, entertained as only he can, diving for shots, kicking at the clay in disgust, and gesturing at fans to make even more noise when they got on his case for arguing calls.
The two-time major title winner eventually was beaten by 134th-ranked Josselin Ouanna of France 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 3-6, 10-8.
"I played terrible," the 20th-seeded Safin said.
He was done as dusk fell, around the time Venus Williams lost the first set of her match against Lucie Safarova. They were told to pack up, because there wasn't enough light

Sania crashes out of French Open singles

Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza crashed out of French Open women's singles event after losing in straight sets to Kazakhstan's Galina Voskoboeva on Tuesday.
Sania went down 4-6 6-7 (3) in a contest lasting a little over an hour-and-a-half.
Sania, who has never gone beyond the second round at Roland Garros, had little match practice going into the clay court event.
The Indian's rustiness was quite evident in the six double faults she committed in the very first set. Sania's failure to convert any of the four break points that she earned only added to her problems.
Voskoboeva converted a crucial break in the seventh game to clinch the first set in 46 minutes.
Sania put up a slightly better show in the second set and cut down on her double faults but 14 unforced errors pulled her back.
After losing her serve twice, Sania broke back to take the set into a tie-breaker. But Voskoboeva, who had lost to Sania in their only past encounter, dominated the proceedings thereafter and clinched the tie-breaker 7-3.
Sania is still in fray in the doubles event where she has teamed up with Taipei's Chia-Jung Chuang.
Sania and Chuang, seeded 14th, will open their campaign against Turk-Belgian pair of Ipek Senoglu and Yanina Wickmayer.