Upsets are common in tennis but this French Open was a calamity for the top seeds

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Upsets are common in tennis but this French Open was a calamity for the top seeds

Roger Federer came into this tournament as the defending champion and his summit clash with Rafael Nadal was talked about even before the tournament began. The Swiss World No 1 began the tournament in convincing fashion and reached the quarter-final without breaking a sweat.

But in the last eight, he met Robin Soderling, whom he had defeated in the final to win his first French Open title. Last year, Soderling had outclassed Rafael Nadal in the quarters and this year it was Federer's turn.
The Swede's powerful ground strokes and even powerful serves were too much even for arguably the world's greatest tennis player as he went down 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 4-6. So convincing was Soderling's win, that at times Federer looked like a complete novice.

Samantha Stosur had beaten four-time French Open winner Justine Henin in the previous round but was still expected to put up only a token fight against the top seed, Serena Williams. But the Australian had other ideas and showed her intent early by clinching the first set 6-2 to stun the crowd. She was serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set when nerves got the better of her as the American broke the 26-year-old's serve to force the set into a tiebreaker and eventually win it to tie the match.

In the decider, Serena had the match point but Stosur fought back valiantly. She eventually managed to break Serena's serve at 6-6. Serving for the match for the second time, Stosur made no mistake and sealed her place in the semi-finals by winning the final set 8-6.

Her outfit made more news than her game in the tournament and that's never a good sign for a player of her calibre. The American, seeded second, was a shadow of herself when she took on Nadia Petrova in the fourth round. She gave the impression that she was not mentally prepared to play at a time when rain was threatening to let loose. Petrova matched Williams in power hitting and was by far more consistent with her shots.

At no point did Williams look like winning or making a comeback as Petrova won 6-4, 6-3.

It does not happen often that none of the top three seeds make it to the last four of a Grand Slam. And thanks to Rafael Nadal, the second seed, it happened only in the women's section.

Things went horribly wrong for the third seed Caroline Wozniacki as she ran into the in-form Francesca Schiavone. The Italian played flawless, aggressive tennis to win 6-2, 6-3.

Before the tournament began, Novak Djokovic, the third seed, was looked upon as the only player who could stop a Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal final. But the Serbian went down to Juergen Melzer in five sets in the quarter-final.

Djokovic was looking good to seal a semi-final berth winning the first two sets 6-3, 6-2. But the Austrian turned things aroundu00a0 and the long rallies began to tire Djokovic.u00a0 Melzer won the third set 6-2, fourth 7-6 and fifth 6-4 to claim a memorable victory.