Williams crashes out

Third seed Venus Williams became the biggest casualty at the French Open as she was beaten in straight sets by inspired Hungarian Agnes Szavay in the third round on Friday.

The American, who has never won the title at Roland Garros, failed to land a game in the first set.

Although she fared better in the second, 29th seed Szavay ended up a 6-0 6-4 winner on Suzanne Lenglen court.

Top seed Dinara Safina recovered from a testing start to race to a straight-sets victory over fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

The world number one needed just an hour and seven minutes to post a 6-2 6-0 victory on Court One, and will now play France's Aravane Rezai in round four.

Sixteen-year-old Portuguese Michelle Larcher de Brito was forced to defend her loud shrieking and grunting after she fell to a 7-6 (7/3) 6-2 loss to Rezai.

Reigning champion Ana Ivanovic continued her ruthless streak at Roland Garros with a straight-sets thrashing of Iveta Benesova.

The Serbian's 6-0 6-2 win over the Czech, ranked 35 in the world, means she has yet to drop a set at this week.

Former world number one Maria Sharapova recovered from a dreadful start to advance into round four.

The Russian, who is ranked 102 in the world after having shoulder problems for the past year, beat Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova 1-6 6-3 6-4.