PARIS, June 1: A flat-footed Ana Ivanovic and a completely out-of-sorts Polish third seed Agnieszka Radwanska bade an early farewell to a cool and blustery Roland Garros on Friday.

For a woman who showed no weaknesses while dispatching Venus Williams in the previous round, Radwanska unusually suffers stage fright when she comes face-to-face with 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.

So it proved again on Friday as the world No 3 froze on the biggest stage in claycourt tennis, winning a measly three games during a 6-1, 6-2 third-round humbling by the Russian 26th seed on Philippe Chatrier Court.

Kuznetsova skipped off court — perhaps to experiment with another eye-catching hairdo after showing off cropped, tight braids — after notching up a sixth successive win over Radwanska and securing a last-16 date with Sara Errani.

The defeat also dashed Radwanska's hopes of finishing the tournament as world No 1 as she had been in a three-way race for the top spot with Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova.

Sixth seed Samantha Stosur reached the last 16 after defeating an erratic Nadia Petrova of Russia 6-3, 6-3.

World No 5 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga prolonged local interest with a 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 win over Italian showman Fabio Fognini, while Tomas Berdych kept up the serene run by the top men's seeds with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 win over South African Kevin Anderson.

Italy's Errani may not yet be a household name but she is likely to provide a stiffer test to Russian Kuznetsova as she has already won three claycourt titles this season.

On Friday, Errani roared back from a first-set meltdown to beat Ivanovic 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 and reach the fourth round in Paris for the first time.

After assured performances in her last two outings, Ivanovic had high hopes of progressing beyond the fourth round of a major for the first time since her triumph here in 2008. But it was not meant to be for the bubbly 24-year-old 13th seed from Serbia.

It is a sentiment probably shared by Japan's Ayumi Morita, who simply could not fire up her serving arm and fell by the wayside 6-1, 6-1 in a second-round thrashing by title favourite Sharapova.

The Russian second seed had been scheduled to face Morita on Thursday but failed to get on to Centre Court after Paul-Henri Mathieu took almost six hours to beat John Isner.

On Friday, with the weather having turned so fresh that the usual queues around the ice-cream stands had disappeared, Sharapova refused to hang around longer than necessary.

The Japanese player did well to keep Sharapova on court for an hour but her postcard home from Paris is unlikely to contain too many happy memories as she managed to hold serve just twice.

Sharapova, on the other hand, will have plenty more happy snapshots to post on her Facebook account, which already has seven million fans and counting.

Results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Men’s singles:

Third round: 5-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) bt Fabio Fognini (Italy) 7-5, 6-4, 6-4; 7-Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) bt 31-Kevin Anderson (South Africa) 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-4. Second round: 20-Marcel Granollers (Spain) bt Malek Jaziri (Tunisia) 7-6 (7-1), 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 7-5.

Women’s singles:

Third round: 6-Samantha Stosur (Australia) bt 27-Nadia Petrova (Russia) 6-3, 6-3; Petra Martic (Croatia) bt 29-Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spain) 6-2, 6-1; 26-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) bt 3-Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) 6-1, 6-2; 15-Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) bt Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (Spain) 6-2, 6-1; 21-Sara Errani (Italy) bt 13-Ana Ivanovic (Serbia) 1-6, 7-5, 6-3; Sloane Stephens (US) bt Mathilde Johansson (France) 6-3, 6-2. Second round: 2-Maria Sharapova (Russia) bt Ayumi Morita (Japan) 6-1, 6-1. Thursday’s remaining results:

Men’s singles:

Second round: 17-Richard Gasquet (France) bt Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) 5-7 7-5 6-2 6-3; Tommy Haas (Germany) bt Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukraine) 6-2 6-3 6-2; Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) bt 10-John Isner (US) 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 18-16; 8-Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia) bt Jeremy Chardy (France) 7-6 (7-4), 6-1, 7-5; Leonardo Mayer (Argentina) bt 24-Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4), 7-5; 29-Julien Benneteau (France) bt Dmitry Tursunov (Russia) 6-4, 6-4, 6-4; Eduardo Schwank (Argentina) bt 32-Florian Mayer (Germany) 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4); 12-Nicolas Almagro (Spain) bt Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus) 6-4, 6-3, 7-5; Fabio Fognini (Italy) bt 28-Viktor Troicki (Serbia) 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 8-6.

Women’s singles:

Second round: 25-Julia Goerges (Germany) bt Heather Watson (Britain) 6-3, 6-4; 28-Peng Shuai (China) bt Lourdes Dominguez Lino (Spain) 6-4, 6-3; Arantxa Rus (Netherlands) bt Virginie Razzano (France) 6-3, 7-6 (7-3); Yaroslava Shvedova (Kazakhstan) bt Sofia Arvidsson (Sweden) 6-1, 6-0; Christina McHale (US) bt Lauren Davis (US) 6-1, 6-3; Carla Suarez Navarro (Spain) bt Sesil Karatantcheva (Kazakhstan) 4-6, 6-4, 6-1; Varvara Lepchenko (US) bt 19-Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-4; 23-Kaia Kanepi (Estonia) bt Irina Begu (Romania) 6-4, 6-1.—Reuters