Venus whimpers out

A tortured and tormented Venus Williams whimpered out of the French Open yesterday while Portuguese teenager Michelle Larcher de Brito made a very noisy departure from the big stage.

After labouring through her first match, surviving a match point in the second, American third seed Williams was finally put out of her misery in the third round when she was tossed out 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 Larcher de Brito 7-6 6-2.

While Larcher de Brito deafened fans, top seeds Rafael Nadal and Dinara Safina made serene progress.

Four-times 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 in 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.

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 metres, 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.

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.

Williams barely raised a groan as she was hopelessly outclassed by 29th seed Szavay who never lost belief during the 81-minute encounter.

In just 30 minutes, Williams saw the first set vanish before her eyes as she suffered her first love set drubbing since July 2007. On that occasion she rebounded to beat Nadia Petrova in the Fed Cup but there were to be no second chances yesterday.

The seven-times major winner raised a glimmer of hope when she nosed ahead 4-3 in the second set but surrendered that advantage with a dreadful double fault.

From then on, there was going to be only one winner, and a backhand into the net ended the American's dream.

In the only other upset, Romanian Victor Hanescu beat seventh seed Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-4 6-4 6-2.

Other results: (men) Murray beat Tipsarevic 7-6 6-3 (retired). (Women) Sharapova beat Shvedova 1-6 6-3 6-4.