Kirilenko ends Kuznetsova's title defence

SVETLANA Kuznetsova's defence of her French Open title ended last night after she was dumped out of in round three by Maria Kirilenko.

Sixth seed Kuznetsova was lucky to even be in the third round after Andrea Petkovic squandered a 40-0 lead serving for victory against her on Wednesday. And she almost repeated the trick when she repelled two match points from her Russian opponent.

But Kirilenko made no mistake with her third to wrap up a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 victory on Court One. Kuznetsova was philosophical about surrendering her crown, admitting she had not played well for some time. "It was very hard to defend," she said. "I have to move on, I have to grow and to improve. I didn't come here with my best game but I gave my all. You cannot play great all the time, it's ups and downs. I'll be back and I have the game."

Kuznetsova's defeat to the 30th seed came close to being overshadowed by an extraordinary match on Philippe Chatrier Court, which saw French golden girl Aravane Rezai squander and save three match points against Nadia Petrova before tournament officials suspended play for the evening with the pair locked at 7-7 in the decider.

Serena Williams admitted she is taking great pleasure from silencing those who claimed she and sister Venus would never again hold the top two spots in the world rankings.

The Williams sisters arrived at Roland Garros as officially the best two players in the world for the first time in seven years. And both remain in the tournament after winning their latest matches yesterday.

Serena gave herself plenty of recovery time for her next match against 29th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova by racing through her postponed second-round clash with Julia Goerges 6-1 6-1 in just 55 minutes. Asked afterwards about the rankings, the world number one said: "When I first found out we'd be number one and two again it was cool, because some people said we would never be number one and two again, and I was like, 'In your face.'"

Her next test will come against Pavlyuchenkova, who beat Jill Craybas 6-4 6-1. Venus became the first woman through to round four after easing past 26th seed Dominika Cibulkova 6-3 6-4 on Philippe Chatrier Court.

The day began with three second-round matches in progress after Thursday's play was blighted by rain. Four-time champion Justine Henin extended her winning streak at Roland Garros to 23 matches and 39 sets by polishing off Klara Zakopalova 6-3 6-3. The 22nd seed will now face Maria Sharapova in arguably the clash of the tournament so far after the Russian 12th seed also converted a one-set overnight lead into a 6-3 6-3 success over Kirsten Flipkens.

It will be the first time the pair have met since a highly-charged Australian Open quarter-final in 2008, a clash that proved Henin's last grand slam appearance before her recent comeback. Sharapova crushed her rival 6-4 6-0 in a match which saw Sharapova's father make a throat-cutting gesture, prompting an official complaint from Henin.