Coming to the 2012 French Open, Varvara Lepchenko had never been past the second round of a Grand Slam, but this time she eliminated seed No.19 Jelena Jankovic in the second round and built on it by upsetting seed No.14 Francesca Schiavone, last year's finalist and the 2010 French Open champion.

The left-handed Lepchenko has beaten Schiavone two times in a month. Then ranked No.77, Lepchenko defeated Schiavone in the first round of Madrid Open 6-4 6-7(8) 6-3, while now, as a world No.63 she took the Italian out of Roland Garros with a 3-6 6-3 8-6 victory. When you look at the stats of the Roland Garros match, they were close in all the departments, Schiavone even hit one winner more, and made seven unforced errors less (37 to 44), but the contrast is the biggest in the conversion of break points, where Schiavone won just 5 of 22 (23%) and Lepchenko 6 of 14 (43%).

In the forth round, Lepchenko will play Petra Kvitova, who battled past Nina Bratchikova 6-2 4-6 6-1. There are no Williams sisters in the draw representing the USA, but we have American Sloane Stephens and Varvara Lepchenko in the fourth round. (photo: Tennis Buzz)

There will be no mixed doubles consolation for Serena Williams. After her shocking first-round upset by Virginie Razzano in the first round of Roland Garros in singles, Serena was sent packing in Paris after a defeat in the first round of mixed doubles. Serena and Bob Bryan lost to Gisela Dulko and Eduardo Schwank of Argentina 7-5 3-6 10-6.

Bob Bryan is current world No.3 in ATP doubles rankings, and was for a long time No.1 doubles player. Also, he's won 78 career titles in doubles and was runner-up in doubles 42 times. Serena herself entered the 2012 Roland Garros match boasting a 19-3 record in five mixed doubles at Grand Slams, which included two titles and two finals. Read more »

By virtue of her excellent form, Dubai, Miami and Brussels titles in 2012 and the fact that in the entire year so far she’s lost only to Victoria Azarenka (six times, though) and Petra Cetkovska, world No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska was tipped off as one of the favorites for the Roland Garros title and by displaying the craftiness of her game in the defeat of Venus Williams in the second round, the Pole only reaffirmed the tennis world’s predictions. However, in the third round against two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, Radwanska won only three games, looked nervous and passive and left Roland Garros without proving herself on big stage. Kuznetsova may currently be 25 spots lower in the rankings than Radwanska, but the experienced Russian had no trouble demolishing the third seed 6-1 6-2.

In the fourth round, the 2009 French Open champion Kuznetsova, seeded No.26 this year, will play Sara Errani, seed No.21. Errani advanced with a 1-6 7-5 6-3 victory over former titlist on the grand stage of Paris Ana Ivanovic, who was so optimistic about the current state of her tennis, especially after winning her first round against Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino 6-1 6-1 and her second round against Shahar Peer 6-2 6-2. Ivanovic blames her bad serve for the defeat. However, even though Ivanovic is a much more famous WTA name, the meeting with Errani was expected to be tricky, especially because the Italian won three straight claycourt titles this season: Acapulco, Barcelona and Budapest. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

After eliminating Serena Williams, the biggest favorite for the title, Virginie Razzano bowed out already in the second round, falling to world No.88 Arantxa Rus 6-3 7-6(3).

It was a heart-attack exciting victory of Razzano over Serena in round one, but it was pretty much expected that Razzano would not be able to last for long, hence her victory, although epic, is overall bad for Roland Garros 2012, as now we have the biggest star Serena out, as well as her conqueror. I checked out Twitter for hashtag Razzano and people's reactions are "that happens to upsetters", "not surprised", "really dislike Giant Killers sometimes", "typical". Oh well, that's sport.

Defending champion Li Na raced into the third round, brushing aside Stephanie Foretz Gacon 6-0 6-2. Last year's finalist and former champion Francesca Schiavone needed three sets, but got past Tsvetana Pironkova 2-6 6-3 6-1. I read that had Schiavone lost that match, she would have fallen out of Top 25, while now she's ranked No.12. Petra Kvitova cruised past Urszula Radwanska 6-1 6-3, Caroline Wozniacki beat Jarmila Gajdosova 6-1 6-4, and Angelique Kerber defeated Olga Govortsova 6-3 6-2 (by the way, Caroline's new temporary fitness trainer Justyna Krzysik looks, well, awesome!).

As for upsets, you guess, Jelena Jankovic is out, 7-6(4) 4-6 6-4. The 19th seed fought for three hours and six minutes, but in the end handed Varvara Lepchenko her first third round of a Grand Slam in fifteen appearances. The other seed to fall on Thursday was seed No.16 Maria Kirilenko, who lost to Klara Zakopalova 6-4 3-6 6-3. (photo: danlamouette)

Serena Williams will try to turn her devastating Roland Garros first-round loss into a win, by trying to do well in mixed doubles with Bob Bryan. Actually, when you look at Serena's mixed doubles (and regular doubles!) history it's, as you can expect, very successful and the fact that she's paired with a player who's spent over 200 weeks at the No.1 position in doubles (currently he's ranked No.3), I wouldn't be surprised if she wins the trophy. Oh that would be making the best out of the worst situation for Serena.

More than 13 years have passed since Serena last played a mixed doubles competition at the 1999 Australian Open. But her record in that department is 19-3. In five mixed doubles Grand Slams she won two titles – at Wimbledon and the US Open in 1998, and had two runner-up finishes - at Roland Garros in 1998 and the Australian Open in 1999.

Moreover, Bob Bryan is no stranger to the Williams family, as he and Venus were Wimbledon runners-ups in 2006. (via WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)