Venus Williams was eliminated from the French Open on Friday, losing in the third round of the clay-court major for the third straight year. While a tortured and tormented Venus whimpered out, a Portuguese teenage upstart made a very noisy departure. After laboring through her first match, surviving a match point in the second, American third seed Venus was finally put out of her misery in the third round when she was tossed aside by rising Hungarian Agnes Szavay 6-0, 6-4. But the tournament's first real shock could not match the commotion created by a 16-year-old Grand Slam debutante. Fans scrambled for their earplugs at Roland Garros when the decibel level went up several notches before France's Aravane Rezai finally silenced Michelle Larcher de Brito 7-6, 6-2. While Larcher de Brito deafened fans, top seeds Rafael Nadal and Dinara Safina made serene progress. Four-time champion Nadal barely broke into a sweat as he overcame potential banana skin Lleyton Hewitt in a 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 hammering to extend his Paris record to 31-0. The only drama came on the final point when Hewitt was unsure if Nadal had unleashed his seventh ace to win the match. The pockmark on the clay confirmed he had. Russian Safina set up a last-16 date with Rezai by thundering past teenage compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-0 and holder Ana Ivanovic pulled off an equally emphatic 6-0, 6-2 drubbing of Czech Iveta Benesova. Andy Murray grabbed a last-16 slot in Paris for the first time after Serb Janko Tipsarevic retired hurt. The British third seed was leading 7-6, 6-3. Men's fourth seed Novak Djokovic wasted little time in finishing off Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 in their interrupted second round match. None of the big names could grab the spotlight from Larcher de Brito. Standing at just 1.65 meters, Larcher de Brito is petite for a tennis player but she more than makes up for it with a cacophony of ear-splitting shrieks that follows her every groundstroke. So loud is her sonic boom, it lasts long after she has made contact with the ball and fans could have been forgiven for thinking Concorde was once again airborne and making an emergency landing on Philippe Chatrier Court. Rezai certainly thought so as she complained to the umpire several times during the match and even insisted he should consult the Grand Slam supervisor on the issue. “Please, there is a limit, enough,” an angry Rezai shouted. Larcher de Brito ignored the booing crowd to fire back: “There are no rules, so there is nothing I can do about it.” Maria Sharapova followed her on to court and her yelps were like whispers in comparison as she continued her comeback from injury with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova. Venus barely raised a groan as she was outclassed by 29th seed Szavay who never lost belief during the 81-minute match. “I'm used to beating people 6-0. I'm not used to... losing a set 6-0. So it completely was foreign ground for me,” she said. In upsets, seventh-seeded Gilles Simon of France was eliminated by No. 30 Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-4, 6-4, 6-2, and No. 12 David Ferrer of Spain lost to No. 23 Robin Soderling of Sweden 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (5). Former champion Juan Carlos Ferrero suffered a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 second-round loss to German Philipp Kohlschreiber. No. 8 Fernando Verdasco of Spain, No. 10 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, No. 12 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile and No. 13 Marin Cilic of Croatia reached the fourth round.
