Sports and Health – PARIS — There was a sense that this might be Venus Williams’s time, finally, at Roland Garros. Her see-through lace dress became the sartorial sensation of the French Open. Her rise back to No. 2 in the world this spring, and her strong play in the opening rounds, turned Williams into an emerging tournament favorite. She had buzz.
But all that build-up came tumbling down in two sets. In a bit of a role reversal, Williams was overpowered in the fourth round Sunday by Nadia Petrova, the 19th seed.
Petrova, the veteran Russian, has a heavy-handed game and a thundering serve not that different than Williams. She used it to great aplomb in battering Williams, 6-4, 6-3, to move to the quarterfinals.
“She served well,” Williams said. “She didn’t really make a lot of errors today. You know, I just didn’t find a good rhythm.”
Petrova, a top-10 mainstay much of the past decade, had not beaten Williams in four previous attempts and has long tried to shake a reputation for melting late in big matches.
But with Williams wearing a long-sleeved shirt over her much-discussed dress because of the cool and windy conditions, Petrova seemed as loose as ever. She had control of her serve, and broke Williams early in both sets to cruise to victory.
“We both played under the same conditions,” Williams said, “but she seemed just to play a little bit more consistently. I don’t think she did anything super special.”
It was part of a day that felt like a bit of déjà vu in women’s tennis. The game is in a bit of a static funk, the list of its best players barely different than it was for much of the previous decade.
That was apparent at Court Philippe Chatrier, even before the match involving Williams and Petrova, who first met at Wimbledon in the fourth round nine years ago.
It began with Elena Dementieva, the fifth-seeded Russian, a top-20 fixture since 2003, beating the unseeded Chanelle Scheepers.
Petrova will play Dementieva in the quarterfinals.
Then Justine Henin and Maria Sharapova, their fruitful careers no longer interrupted, added to the time-warp feeling. They are former No. 1s, winners of a combined 10 Grand Slam tournaments, escalating toward elite status again.
After splitting the first two sets and taking a break for darkness, Henin and Sharapova returned Sunday to finish what they started.
Momentum swung wildly, and serving seemed a losing proposition. When the red dust settled, it was Henin, the four-time champion, skipping away with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory.
It was her 24th consecutive victory at the French Open, a streak dating to the first of three consecutive championships in 2005 and interrupted by a two-year absence in 2008 and 2009.
“You always need to test yourself and go through tough moments,” Henin said. “It’s true that this was a match that I feared a bit, because I have great admiration for this girl.”
Henin will face No. 7 Samantha Stosur in the fourth round.
Two of the men’s quarterfinals are set, and one is a rematch of last year’s final between Roger Federer and Robin Soderling. Federer, the defending champion seeded first, beat Stanislas Wawrinka, 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-2, in the first meeting of Swiss men this deep into a Grand Slam tournament. Soderling, seeded fifth, mashed No. 10 Marin Cilic, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the eighth seed, became the last French singles player to exit when he retired with what appeared to be a hip injury after losing 6-2 in the first set against No. 11 Mikhail Youzhny. Youzhny awaited the late-night winner between No. 4 Andy Murray and No. 15 Tomas Berdych.
It was the women’s side where the back-to-the-future theme stayed mostly intact. Italy’s Francesca Schiavone, seeded 17th, beat No. 30 Maria Kirilenko in two sets. She will play 19-year-old Caroline Wozniacki, a rare rising player who looks sturdy enough to find consistency near the top. The third seed, she slid past No. 14 Flavia Pennetta, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 6-2.
Williams’s loss was not inexplicable. She has struggled at the French Open, making the final in 2002 (losing to Serena) but otherwise never advancing past the quarterfinals. She lost in the third round the past three years.
This year seemed like it might be different. It was a lot like the others.
Likewise, Henin and Sharapova were familiar foes. They had met four previous times in Grand Slam tournaments, although never before the quarterfinals. Sharapova earned one of her three Grand Slam titles by beating Henin in the 2006 United States Open final.
But they had not met since the 2008 Australian Open, months before Henin left the game, ranked No. 1, after years of championships and personal strain and tragedy. Now 27, she seemed to emerge more complete and relaxed.
She announced her return in September, and in January, in her second tournament, she reached the final of the Australian Open.
Sharapova, 23, missed nine months in 2008 and 2009 with a shoulder injury, dropping from the top 10 to outside the top 100 in the rankings.
She opened the third set by breaking Henin’s serve, then held for a 2-0 lead. But in a set in which serves were broken five of the first seven games, momentum was fleeting.
Henin regained control after swatting away four break points in the third game. She began moving Sharapova around with her strong forehand, and was able to find her way inside the baseline to control points. She rattled off four straight games for a 4-2 lead.
“From the beginning I felt like I was the one that was more aggressive than the two of us,” Sharapova said. “And that kind of changed a little bit and changed the momentum of the match.”
But Henin double-faulted on a break point, and Sharapova had a chance to get the set back on serve. Henin slapped a backhand down the line to take the game, then served with authority to capture the match.
In the end, it was Henin who has moved comfortably into what she has called her “second career,” who pushed her record at Roland Garros to 38-4, who has made the present feel an awful lot like the past.