Croatia`s Ajla Tomljanovic made history in the French Open on Friday by upsetting third seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-4, 6-4 in the third round.
|Last Updated: May 30, 2014, 05:44 PM IST|Source: AFP
Croatia`s Ajla Tomljanovic made history in the French Open on Friday by upsetting third seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-4, 6-4 in the third round.
The defeat meant that the tournament`s top three seeds had all been ousted inside six days, with top seed Serena Williams losing in the second round and second seed Li Na departing in the first.
It was the first Grand Slam in the Open era where the top three women seeds all failed to make the last 16.
Ranked 72nd in the world, 21-year-old Tomljanovic will play the winner of the tie between Taylor Townsend of the United States and 14th seed Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain for a place in the quarter-finals.
Fourth seed Simona Halep of Romania is the top seeded player left in the draw, having reached the third round on Thursday.
"After seeing the first two seeds go out you kinda feel like -- hey I can do that too. I grew up with these girls that were doing that," the Florida-based Tomljanovic said.
"I went out out there and I really felt that I could win. It showed and that was how I won.
"I have a fourth round next and obviously happy, but I do not want to get too happy about it either."
Tomljanovic ended 2013 ranked 78th in the world, improving from 495th -- the biggest ranking improvement by any player in the top 100.
This year she lost in the third round at the Australian Open but more recently failed to qualify for the main draw at Madrid and Rome in the buildup to Roland Garros.
For Radwanska it was the first time she had failed to make it past the third round at a Grand Slam event since the 2012 French Open.
Last year she was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon, a quarter-finalist at the Australian and French Opens and made the fourth round at the US Open.
Watched by Croatian 1997 French Open winner Iva Majoli, Tomljanovic quickly took control of a match played in front of a sparse centre court crowd.
She jumped out into a 5-1 before a shell-shocked Radwanska managed to break serve and get back to 5-4.
The Croatian made no mistake on serve in the following game though and an early break in the second set sent her on the way to the biggest win of her career.
While newcomer Tomljanovic was making the headlines on centre court, veteran Australian Samantha Stosur was stealthily moving through the draw out on the Suzanne Lenglen court.
The 19th seed, a finalist at Roland Garros in 2010, pulled off an impressive 6-4, 6-4 win over Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia to reach the last 16 where she will play 2012 champion Maria Sharapova if the Russian defeats Paula Ormaechea of Argentina in her third round tie later Friday.
Stosur, the 2011 US Open champion, had too much firepower for the diminutive Cibulkova, taking an early lead in the first set and staying ahead after that.
The Australian lost to Sharapova in the third round of the Madrid Masters earlier this month, having also defeated Cibulkova in the previous round.
"I love playing here and have had some great moments and some of the best matches in my career, so hopefully I can still have a few more matches this year," she said.
Also in action later Friday is Spanish sensation Garbine Muguruza, who defeated top seed Serena Williams in straight sets in the second round.
She goes up against Anna Schmiedlova of Slovakia, who defeated Venus Williams at the same stage of the tournament.
Eighth-seeded German Angelique Kerber takes on Slovak veteran Daniela Hantuchova, while fast-rising Canadian Eugenie Bouchard takes on Johanna Larsson of Sweden.
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