Serena in historic defeat

Serena Williams suffered an historic Grand Slam defeat in the French Open first round yesterday, the worst of her career, while Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova eased through.

Former champion and fifth seed Williams bowed out in a three-set shocker to 111th-ranked home hope Virginie Razzano in the pair’s first meeting which the Frenchwoman clinched 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 in 3hr 03min.

“I knew I had it in me and I dug deep inside myself to find it,” gasped Razzano, a 29-year-old from Dijon, who spurned seven match points in a nailbiting finale before her rival finally hit long to concede the contest and spark pandemonium among her noisy home support.

Serena’s loss constituted a first ever opening round Grand Slam loss for the 30-year-old holder of an WTA Tour-leading 13 major titles for players still active, in this her 47th appearance at a major.

Her previous worst Slam showing had been a second round loss to her sister Venus on her 1998 debut at the Australian Open.

“I’m disappointed, but that’s life, things could be worse,” said Williams.

“I’ve been through so much in my life. I’m not sitting here happy. I’ve gotta figure out what I did wrong and not do it again.”

Nadal, bidding for a record seventh men’s crown, endured no such problems as the Spaniard, beaten only once in his entire career at the venue, as he attempts to go one better than Bjorn Borg’s six titles, overcame a second-set blip to thrash Italian journeyman Simone Bolelli 6-2, 6-2, 6-1.

Also moving through among the men was British fourth seed Andy Murray, who crushed Japan’s Tatsuma Ito 6-1, 7-5, 6-0.

Likewise into the hat was Murray’s potential quarter-final opponent, Spanish sixth seed David Ferrer, who dismissed Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko 6-3, 6-4, 6-1.

Among the women, Sharapova was one of three former grand slam champions to advance, and she had the added bonus of seeing potential last eight opponent Serena crash out.

Sharapova humiliated Romania’s Alexandra Cadantu 6-0, 6-0 in just 48 minutes as the Russian second seed, seeking to complete her collection of majors, cruised towards a meeting with Japan’s Ayumi Morita, who put out Polona Hercog of Slovenia 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, the fourth-seeded Czech, thrashed Australia’s Ashleigh Barty 6-1, 6-2 in 54 minutes to join Sharapova in the next round where she meets Urszula Radwanska of Poland.

Also marching on was 2010 Paris champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy, seeded 14, who defeated Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-3, 6-1.

Heather Watson, who managed to reach the second round on her debut last year, thereby entering the top 100, meanwhile scored an impressive 6-2, 6-4 win over Russian Elena Vesnina to earn a match-up against Germany’s 25th seed Julia Goerges.