Paris, May 26: Defending champion and top seed Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium was sensationally dumped out of the French Open today, losing 7-5, 6-4 to Italy's Tathiana Garbin in the second round. The world number one, the holder of three Grand Slam titles and who had come into the tournament not having played for six weeks because of a virus, went down to defeat against the world number 86 in 1hr 58min leaving the 26-year-old Italian to progress to a third round clash against Jie Zheng of China.

It was the earliest defeat at Roland Garros for a defending women's champion since Spain's Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario also perished in the second round in 1989.
She also became the first top seed to lose before the third round in the 79-year history of the women's singles.

But Henin-Hardenne insisted she had no regrets about returning to competition even though she was desperately short of match sharpness.

"It was probably too soon to come back but I had to return one day," said the 21-year-old.
Despite her defeat, Henin-Hardenne was keen to pay tribute to the unheralded Italian woman.

Bureau Report