Zheng and Petrova both upset at French Open

I was beyond surprised when I learned that Michelle Larcher de Brito had upset Zheng Jie in the second round of the French Open today. Though de Brito has shown promise for some time, she frequently emerges from matches with zeroes in her score. There's that, and there's also the fact that the 15th-seeded Zheng has begun to play much better on clay. But upset she was, 6-4, 6-3.

Nadia Petrova, once a superb clay court player and still not so shabby these days, was upset by an unseeded player from Russia named Maria Sharapova. Sharapova, in fact, dominated the first set, winning it 6-2. The second set was a complete reversal; Petrova took it, 6-1. The third set was something Thrill Ride herself would have loved, with the momentum swinging like a traffic light in a hurricane. Down 2-4 and 15-40, Sharapova found a way to win the game, then broke Petrova. At 4-all, Sharapova served at 40-0, then suddenly had a break point against her, but again, she held. At 6-7, Petrova double-faulted, then hit a ball wide, and that was that.

Sharapova served fairly conservatively, except when she needed to do otherwise. She hit seven aces.