Stosur and Li both upset on 3rd day of Wimbledon

Someone was going to take Sam Stosur out of Wimbledon; we knew that. The "someone" turned out to be Arantxa Rus, who is remembered for having removed Kim Clijsters from the French Open in the second round last year. Rus did the same for 5th seed Stosur today, defeating her 6-2, 0-6, 6-4, and yes, that's a strange scoreline. (But, somehow, not for Stosur.)

11th seed Li Na also said goodbye today, as she met a straight-set defeat at the hands of sometime giant-killer Sorana Cirstea.

Not likely to be talked about, but also a bit of a surprise, was the second round exit of Petra Cetkovska, who had such a great run at last year's tournament. Cetkovska went out 7-6, 4-6, 6-3 to Sloane Stephens.

Still in the mix are Kim Clijsters, Heather Watson, Vera Zvonareva, Sabine Lisicki, and Maria Kirilenko.

Then there is the matter of Maria Sharapova and Tsvetana Pironkova. Their match was suspended because of darkness during the second set, though the players appeared to have wanted the suspension to come sooner. The first set was simply crazy, with the (as always) casual-appearing Pironkova serving extremely well and in a kind of tricky way, and going up 3-0, then 4-1. It was at that point that Sharapova started to figure out the grass-loving Bulgarian--a little bit, anyway.

Sharapova saved a set point when she served at 2-5, the broke when Pironkova served for the set at 5-3. At 4-5, Sharapova was serving at 40-0, but suddenly, it was deuce, and just as suddenly, Pironkova had another set point, but she hit a backhand down the line just a little long. The game returned to deuce, after which the French Open champion hit an ace, then held with an overhead.

Serving at 5-6, 0-40, Sharapova had to contend with another three set points for her opponent. This is when it got really good because Sharapova saved all three of them. Pironkova saved a game point, and one got the sense that this could go on and on, but it didn't; Sharapova won on her next game point. She then won the tiebreak 7-3, as Pironkova fell to the ground attempting to return her opponent's last tiebreak shot.

Play was suspended with Sharapova up 3-1 in the second set, and Pironkova has to sleep with the knowledge that she saw five set points disappear.