The biggest Australian hope, US Open champion Samantha Stosur, crashed out of the Aussie Open already in the first round, and we didn't wait for long for another Grand Slam champion to bow out, as Francesca Schiavone lost to fellow Italian Romina Oprandi the very next day, in the second round, though.

The tenth-seeded Schiavone hit an astonishing number of nine double faults, while Oprandi made none. In addition, Schiavone made 35 unforced errors to her opponent's 16, and won only 28% on the second serve, while Oprandi was three times better in that department.

"I couldn't play like I supposed and I was playing to play," Schiavone said in a post-match conference.

The 80th-ranked Oprandi, who has reached her first third round at a Grand Slam, will play Julia Goerges next. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Samantha Stosur lost 6-2 6-4 in the first round of the Apia International Sydney to Francesca Schiavone, which is her second straight early loss at a tournament on her home soil this year, ahead of the Australian Open, and the big expectations and her own desire to do well at the Grand Slam in her country, following her US Open title win, seem to be catching up with big-hitting Stosur.

When she won her maiden major title in September 2011 by beating Serena Williams in the final, Stosur couldn't wait to start the same quest in Australia, but now that the moment has come, she lost her second match in Brisbane and her opening match in Sydney. The 27-year-old is admitting to be falling under the pressure:

That's what makes the loss so difficult, Melbourne is coming up and I want to start playing well. I think today I certainly didn't handle that (expectation) side of things at all well.

I went into it with the right frame of mind, and got out there and it (the crowd support) kind of hit me. It did kind of surprise me how much it kind of hamstrung me today.

Stosur played the Australian Open main draw nine times and has never been past the fourth round. Do you think she will overcome the pressure and improve her Australian Open result armed with a Grand Slam triumph experience? (photo: Stephane Martinache)

Never in their eight previous matches in the period of eight years, from 2002 to 2010, had Francesca Schiavone beaten Venus Williams, and at the December 3rd exhibition event in Milan, the Italian managed to beat both the Williams sisters, on top of showing her dancing skills by entertaining the 11,000 crowd to Michael Jackson's "Beat It" with Flavia Pennetta.

Schiavone defeated Venus 7-5 7-3, and then Serena 7-3 8-10 8-6. Pennetta also beat Venus, 7-6 7-2, but lost to Serena 6-8 7-3 7-3. The Williams sisters won the doubles 3-7 8-6 8-6.

Neither of the Williams sisters played competitive tennis since the US Open, however they did play another exhibition match recently, last month in Columbia, and Venus defeated Serena 6-4 7-6(5). (source: ESPN)

Top seed Francesca Schiavone lost in the opening round of the Hansol Korea Open to Vera Dushevina. It is actually Dushevina’s third victory over Schiavone in their four matches, but the first one in straight sets.

The world No.8 Schiavone, 57 places higher in the WTA rankings than Dushevina, lost the first set in a tiebreak 7-6(4) and succumbed in the second set 6-2.

The highest seed at the tournament is now No.2 Marion Bartoli, who defeated Nuria Llagostera Vives 6-2 6-2 in the first round and will play Vania King in the second. Bartoli won their last two meetings, including this year in Brisbane 6-1 6-2. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

John Bolan, friend, reader and contributor of Women's Tennis Blog, is at the US Open and he sent me his summary of the second day. I wanted to share with you John's view of the exciting first round match between Galina Voskoboeva and Francesca Schiavone.

The player who lost and should have won was Galina Voskoboeva playing against No.7 seed Francesca Schiavone in Louis Armstrong Stadium before thousands of fans.

Francesca started out winning the first four games until Galina got comfortable on the large court. Galina won 9 out of the next 12 games losing the first set 6-3 and winning the second 6-1. The players took an off-court break before the third set. After the rest, Francesca came out firing, winning the first 3 games on her way to a 6-4 victory. Francesca never won more than one game in a row except for those 2 starts in sets one and three.

Galina was the one who looked like the Top 10 player. She won the same number of games (13) as she dominated the stats hitting 32 winners to Francesca's 17 and winning every service stat. She had only one double fault compared to a horrible 16 for Francesca. Galina's groundstrokes were so perfect, but at key times she missed on important points.

After signing a few autographs, Galina received a thunderous ovation as she walked off the court.

The world No.87 Galina also is a top doubles player and is well coached by the former great Russian player, Alina Jidkova. We will be hearing much more in the coming months from Galina Voskoboeva. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

China's Li Na has just made a tennis revolution – the 29-year-old defeated last year's winner Francesca Schiavone in the final of Roland Garros and the sport not so popular in China is now expected to bloom, or at least to start blooming, and when you have a population of so many people in question than it's a really big deal. As for the very championship match, Li was solid, had precise shots and was in charge more or less throughout the match, which can be described as one calm Grand Slam final, without much fuss and excessively expressed emotions.

The world No.7 Li had a straightforward win in the first set. In 39 minutes the Chinese sixth seed faced no break points, took Schiavone's serve in the fifth game and simply marched on to take the set 6-4. The second set Li continued in the similar fashion, breaking Schiavone's serve in the very beginning and at 3-1 Li had a great opportunity to bring the match too close to an end, but she netted a clear shot and the world No.5 Schiavone slowly managed to get back into the match when she leveled at 4-4. Then both players held their serves until the tiebreak in which Li started shining again and actually won it without losing a point! Final score: 6-4 7-6(0). Read more »

Here we go again, two players pretty much no one was talking about in the lead-up to the French Open are now in the final of the claycourt Grand Slam – Francesca Schiavone and Li Na. Schiavone was mentioned here and there, mostly as last year's surprise champion, while Li, we can safely say, was totally neglected. Anyway, Schiavone beat Marion Bartoli 6-3 6-3 in today's semifinal (yes, Bartoli reached the final four, which just adds to the fact that predictions are useless) and Li defeated Maria Sharapova, the most favored player to win the tournament.

Before anything I'd like to repeat that Schiavone and Li are playing the final of the French Open and Caroline Wozniacki, Kim Clijsters, Vera Zvonareva, Victoria Azarenka, Samantha Stosur, Jelena Jankovic, Petra Kvitova, Julia Goerges are all gone. Many of them long gone!

The world No.5 Schiavone made a big statement by reaching the final again. Even if the Italian doesn't win the remaining match, she has proved that her last year's success wasn't just an incidence, and even though people will always argue and mention the circumstances or whatever, I think the 30-year-old Schiavone has a solid proof that she can rock. Her quarterfinal against Anastasia Pavlyuchekova this week was one of best showcases for Schiavone's physical and mental capabilities.

Every now and then the seventh-ranked Li becomes "the first Chinese player who ________". In January she played the Australian Open final as the first Chinese Grand Slam finalist in women's singles, and now, just a day after becoming the first Chinese to reach the singles semifinals at Roland Garros, she's become the first Chinese to play the finals, by ousting three-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova 6-4 7-5. Li made twice more winners than the Russian (24 to 12), five less unforced errors (23 to 28), seven double faults less (3 to 10), and hit one ace to her opponent's zero.

Schiavone and Li have a 2-2 career head-to-head record. Their last and only match on clay was at last year's Roland Garros and Schiavone won 6-4 6-2 in the third round. Although, as unpredictable as women's tennis is, this statistical point doesn't mean much. (photos: chascow, Stephane Martinache)

First-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova looked to be following up her upset of world No.3 Vera Zvonareva with an upset of defending champion Francesca Schiavone when the score was 6-1 4-1 for the 19-year-old Russian.

However, Schiavone, 11 years older than her opponent, dragged out a 7-5 second-set win and in the third set she raced to a 5-1 lead. Even though Pavlyuchenkova managed to level at 5-5, the fifth-seeded Italian was determined to finish the job, and on her third match point defeated the 14th-seeded Russian 1-6 7-5 7-5.

In the semis Schiavone will play the winner of the Marion Bartoli vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova quarterfinal. (photo by our reader Tony)

Traditionally, Women's Tennis Blog is doing Grand Slam fashion overviews, so let's see what major sports brands have on display at Roland Garros 2011.

World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki brought nothing new to the fashion table of Roland Garros – the 20-year-old Dane, who bowed out of the tournament in the third round already, wore the adidas by Stella McCartney Ruffle Dress which she debuted at Indian Wells in March.

Adidas impressed with an array of bright colors that perfectly contrast/match the red clay of Roland Garros. Above you can see the variety of pink, orange and green combinations on Daniela Hantuchova, Sorana Cirstea, Andrea Petkovic, Maria Kirilenko and Arantxa Rus. Here you can read more about Adidas' French Open collection.

Read more »

Defending champion Francesca Schiavone resisted the challenge of Jelena Jankovic and advanced to the quarterfinals of Roland Garros. On her tournament debut ten years ago she reached the quarterfinals, and together with her last year's title, this is her third appearance in the final eight of Roland Garros.

The fourth-round match between Schiavone and Jankovic was tense and could have gone either way, but the Italian's good serves and aggressiveness gave her that extra something needed to defeat the Serb who played Roland Garros semifinals in 2007, 2008 and 2010.

The world No.10 Jankovic has a lot to regret, at times she was leading in the third set, and both the players were pretty much equal, but the moment Jankovic allowed Schiavone to break her at 4-4, her fall was strongly suggested. Schiavone didn't let the opportunity slip away and won the match 6-3 2-6 6-4.

Schiavone's opponent in the quarterfinals will be Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who advanced with a 7-6(4) 2-6 6-2 victory over third seed Vera Zvonareva. With top seed Caroline Wozniacki and second seed Kim Clijsters already out, this is the first French Open since 1968 that none of the top three seeds are in the quarterfinals! World No.4 Victoria Azarenka is now the highest-ranked player left in the draw.

Pavlyuchenkova, who is 11 years younger than her next opponent Schiavone, will be playing her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. (photo courtesy of our reader Tony)