Elena Dementieva, widely regarded as the best women’s tennis player never to have won a Grand Slam singles tournament, will have to wait until Wimbledon to claim her first major title. The No. 4 seed at Roland Garros was ushered out of Paris by an Australian, in a fascinating tale of both triumph and heartbreak.

Samantha Stosur, a native of Brisbane, achieved on Saturday what a countrywoman was about to do two days earlier. Stosur, the 30th seed at the French Open, steadied her game in the third and deciding set to defeat Dementieva, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, in 2 hours and 12 minutes. The third-round win sends Stosur into Monday’s fourth round, where the Australian will meet France’s Virginie Razzano.

The poignancy of Stosur’s triumph might not register for most casual tennis fans, but this upset will certainly heal a lot of wounds Down Under. In order to understand why, one needs to recall how this matchup originally came into being.

In a fairer world, Stosur would have played fellow Aussie Jelena Dokic in the round of 32. Dokic–who stormed to the Australian Open quarterfinals a month ago in her return to Grand Slam competition–dominated Dementieva, 6-2, in the first set of Thursday’s second round at Roland Garros. With the score tied at 2-all in the second stanza, Dokic had every reason to expect that victory was hers for the taking. Considering the fact that her wayward father, Damir Dokic, was just about to stand trial for allegedly threatening to kill Australia’s Ambassador to Serbia, the mere prospect of playing more tennis had to soothe Jelena’s soul. Being able to escape from off-court troubles at the French Open would only add to the feel-good narrative authored in 2009 by the 26-year-old who grew up in Croatia but moved to Australia at age 11.

However, in a life already marked by so many bitter disappointments and untimely detours, Dokic would meet with acute and abrupt agony once again.

In the fifth game of the second set against Dementieva, Dokic–who has shown no discomfort whatsoever in her first-set romp–suddenly felt a piercing pain in her back. Dokic tried to play through the injury in the next three games, even managing to win one of them, but her body’s message became too loud and insistent to ignore. Knowing how much this French Open–her first since 2004–meant to her career, Dokic still had to retire at 3-4 in the set, and cried the cry of a luckless victim when she sat in her courtside chair just moments later. Australians of all ages, who care passionately about sports and hold tennis in particularly high esteem, felt a dagger rip through their hearts as their young heroine helplessly endured the latest in a series of searing personal setbacks.

That background helps explain why Sam Stosur’s dumping of Dementieva–though tinged with a certain sadness for the Australian people–represents a cathartic conquest marked by a certain measure of redemption. Jelena Dokic’s back injury let a struggling and sluggish Dementieva off the hook; Stosur, however, would finish the job.

The No. 30 seed prevailed over the fourth-rated Russian largely because she was able to hit through the court and play with more freedom. Stosur committed five more errors than Dementieva (38-33), but managed to hit 14 more winners (34-20) in the up-and-down encounter. In the third set alone, Dementieva hit only 2 winners, while Stosur–who was broken four times through the first two sets–held serve without facing a single break point. Her ability to establish leverage on service points, combined with a more potent array of groundstrokes, allowed Stosur to find considerable confidence at the start of the third set. That momentum only snowballed as the set continued, and as a result, a story of Australian redemption found fulfillment.

Jelena Dokic will hopefully rebound from her latest brush with misfortune. For Australian tennis fans, Samantha Stosur has already allowed a nation to bounce back. Thursday’s nightmare turned into Saturday’s salvation, at the end of a week that won’t soon be forgotten in the land Down Under.

One has to admit this much: If you’re going to act like a diva, you might as well do so in a city like Paris. The members of the WTA Tour at least have a sense of drama, if not proper decorum.

In the first week of the 2009 French Open, many of the headlines in the women’s tournament have emerged not from the shotmaking prowess of the WTA’s best players, or from soaring career accomplishments that deserve extended mention. No, the biggest media magnet in Paris has been the behavior of a few women who evidently have some growing up to do at a still-tender age.

Victoria Azarenka’s merely the latest young lady to run into a controversy that has little to do with backhands or wide-angle serves.

Azarenka, the ninth seed at Roland Garros, fought her way into the fourth round with a gutsy but emotionally volatile 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 win over 22nd-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro. Azarenka will face eighth-rated Ana Ivanovic in a highly-anticipated encounter on Monday.

Why has Azarenka drawn fire for her on-court behavior? Fellow pros Marion Bartoli and Michelle Larcher de Brito had already raised eyebrows for their own words and deeds earlier in the week, which made it theoretically more difficult for another WTA performer to gain press for something other than tennis.

Bartoli made jaws drop after her second-round exit from the tournament. Following her loss to Italy’s Tathiana Garbin, Bartoli responded to a question in her press conference by saying that Garbin’s entourage would shout from the coaches’ box after the Frenchwoman committed an unforced error. “It’s not sports(man)like. They’re Italians,” Bartoli said. Given the uproar that consumed Italy and France after the contentious 2006 World Cup Final, perhaps it’s understandable that bad blood might still exist between the two nations. Nevertheless, Bartoli’s remark represented a low point in personal diplomacy.

De Brito, a 16-year old Portuguese phenom now training at Nick Bollitieri’s IMG tennis academy in Bradenton, Florida, managed to outdo Bartoli in this game of “girls behaving badly.” Maria Sharapova’s shrieks between shots might be off-putting, but de Brito’s primal screams have–in the estimation of most tennis observers–acquired far more volume and resonance than anything uttered by her more famous Russian counterpart. This problem reached such high-pitched proportions that it disrupted de Brito’s third-round match against France’s Aravane Rezai on Friday afternoon. Rezai–complaining not just about the loudness, but also the length, of de Brito’s ear-shattering emissions–raised her objection to chair umpire Mohammad El Jenatti. De Brito entered the fray by tellling El Jenatti, “Do you ask Sharapova to keep quiet?”

The soap-operatic theater continued after Rezai won the match. At net for the postmatch “handshake,” de Brito barely touched Rezai’s hand and avoided any eye contact. Naturally, the French crowd–which can be tough on players for far more innocent displays of emotion–let loose with catcalls and whistles as de Brito left the court. It hasn’t been a good week for women in their late teens and early 20s, thrown into the pressure-cooker of a global sporting event with large pots of both prize money and prestige on the line.

Now, Victoria Azarenka has become the latest member of the WTA Tour to lose hold of her emotions in the heat of battle.

Azarenka had enough difficulties with Suarez Navarro, who reached the quarterfinals of last year’s French Open; the 19-year-old from Belarus needed 2 hours and 35 minutes to complete a two-day match suspended Friday night because of darkness. Down a set and 4-1, Azarenka found herself squarely on the ropes, but managed to pull out the second set and return to the court on Saturday afternoon with a fresh mindset. The night of sleep helped her tennis, but it didn’t improve the Belorussian’s on-court demeanor.

On Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, Azarenka displayed the impetuous nature of a teenager still learning how to comport herself before the eyes of a studious French crowd. While Suarez Navarro silently went about her business, Azarenka–who emits noticeable grunts between shots (close to Sharapova at times, but nothing remotely resembling the deafening de Brito)–reacted to good and bad moments with untoward displays of pronounced feeling. Angrily swiping her racket after errors and bemoaning bad calls, Azarenka earned little admiration on Court 1 at Roland Garros when she’d exult after hitting a terrific shot. After one of her mini-celebrations on Friday, the crowd booed Azarenka, causing the tender but talented pro to weep during a changeover. After finishing off Suarez Navarro in the third set on Saturday, Azarenka hit a ball out of the stadium–as players are known to do when they win–but the French crowd pounced on her yet again, as a reminder that her conduct over the past two and a half hours of match play didn’t meet their standards.

It’s important to remember that putting young, sheltered, often-spoiled tennis players into a global spotlight will not bring out the best in human behavior. One can only hope that for Victoria Azarenka, Marion Bartoli, and Michelle Larcher de Brito, the passage of time will allow these plucky but prickly competitors to show the better angels of their nature… on and off the tennis court. Then, prestigious events like the French Open can be appreciated for the quality of competition, and not for any antics that only serve as a distraction from the real show in town.

Through the first two rounds of the French Open, Venus Williams–who is as comfortable on red clay as a snowman in the Sahara Desert–possessed enough guile and grit to fight past opponents who lacked the chops to take her down. But as a Grand Slam event progresses and a field of 128 shrinks to 32, the level of competition quickly rises. On a sun-baked Friday at Roland Garros, the seven-time major champion encountered a third-round foe who could expose the American’s feet of clay.

Hungary’s Agnes Szavay, the 29th seed in the women’s draw, started strong and finished with poise, breaking Venus five times on her way to a convincing 6-0, 6-4 win on Court Suzanne Lenglen. While the third-seeded American is left to focus exlcusively on the women’s doubles tournament with sister Serena, Szavay moves into the fourth round or better for the third time in nine Grand Slam appearances.

In her first two matches, Venus encountered players ranked outside the top 40, a fact that–while not a guarantee of success–certainly allows an elite player to find a small but meaningful comfort zone in pressure situations. Up against the 29th-seeded Szavay, the older Williams sister never found a groove, because her 20-year-old opponent routinely sent back a harder, heavier ball that knocked Venus off balance and kept her game in disarray. Szavay stormed the bastille, in the city that gave rise to the very term, by serving up a Parisian bagel in the first set. Evidence of Venus’s complete lack of rhythm in the first set could be found in her winner-error differential: minus-11. With only 3 winners and 14 mistakes, no tennis professional–from Rafael Nadal to the lowest-ranked player in an obscure challenger event–can possibly hope to succeed. Venus did ratchet up her level of play in set two, but because the first set had been such an utter disaster, it’s not as though the American displayed superior quality for any extended period of time.

Szavay donated a break of serve to Venus at 3-all in the second set, courtesy of a double fault in somewhat windy conditions, but when given that gift, Richard Williams’s first daughter couldn’t take advantage. Venus committed only two double faults in the 81-minute match, but one of them came on break point, enabling the Hungarian to get back on serve and ultimately establish a 5-4 lead. Serving just to stay alive and prolong the match–which she successfully did at 4-5 in the third set of her second-round match against Lucie Safarova on Thursday–Venus couldn’t turn the trick this time around. Up against a better and tougher opponent, the third seed–who hit only one ace all afternoon–could not win the cheap and quick service points that are so essential to her game. Szavay closed out the round of 32 tussle on her first match point, booking a ticket for the second Sunday of this three-Sunday tournament.

As noted above, this win gives Szavay another trip to the round of 16 in a slam singles event. What’s even more impressive for the 20-year-old is the fact that her three journeys into the second week of a slam (one of them took her to the 2007 U.S. Open quarterfinals) have come on three separate surfaces: U.S. Open hardcourt (’07), Wimbledon grass (’08), and now the terre battue of Paris. Szavay isn’t on the cusp of a top 10 ranking, but with more steady showings at slams, the 29th seed at Roland Garros could climb up the rankings list and become an even bigger factor on the WTA Tour.

In horse racing, “winning by a head” represents a very small margin between the winner and the runner-up. In tennis, the same phrase could accurately characterize the way in which champions so frequently fend off talented challengers in the early rounds of Grand Slam tournaments. After surviving a scare from amped-up Argentine Jose Acasuso in the second round of the French Open, Roger Federer once again showed why the mind–even more than a monster serve or a lethal forehand–is the biggest single weapon in the sport that’s made him a global icon.

On a cloudy Thursday in Paris, Federer–on the verge of trailing two sets to one–rallied from a 5-1 third-set to topple Acasuso, 7-6 (8), 5-7, 7-6 (2), 6-2. The four-set triumph, achieved in 3 hours and 25 minutes of unpredictable parrying, sends Federer to the third round, where he’ll meet Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu on Saturday.

The second seed at Roland Garros, intent on playing a full two weeks in France, came perilously close to playing merely two matches at the year’s claycourt major. Based on the disjointed form he displayed over the past three months on tour, one might have been inclined to think–without seeing this match live–that Federer once again shanked a stack of shots and never found a groove against Acasuso, a wondrously artistic performer who reached the fourth round of this tournament in 2005.

That wasn’t the case, however, on a day when a light rain slowed the clay and reshaped the calculus of the confrontation on Court Philippe Chatrier.

Federer entered the match with a 3-0 head-to-head record against Acasuso, but those three wins all came on hardcourts. Acasuso’s impressive but expansive strokes–not economical or compact, but formidable if the Argentine gets a good look at the ball–are better suited for a slow clay court, and after a first round in which hot conditions hardened the red clay of Paris, the damp second-round conditions played right into the hands–not to mention the wheelhouse–of the South American.

Acasuso spent the first two and a half hours of the match (essentially, the first two and a half sets; the first three sets took 2 hours and 55 minutes to complete) keeping Federer on the defensive. The Argentine hit with consistent depth and appreciable spin to deny the world No. 2 the ability to unload his forehand for winners. With that said, Thursday’s throwdown wouldn’t have been very competitive if Acasuso didn’t have a big arrow in the bag, and that devastating weapon was put to good use to supplement the South American’s tactically sound approach.

While generally playing with a high margin for error, Acasuso brought the heavy artillery he needed to close down points against the Swiss superstar. The 26-year-old routinely uncorked a hard, flat, inside-outside forehand that repeatedly pinned Federer to his comparatively weak backhand corner. Rarely employing a down-the-line forehand, Acasuso–not wanting to hit backhands of his own–was able to gain leverage in rallies by employing his favorite shot. Federer didn’t spend this match hitting the shoulder-level backhands that have given him trouble on red clay, but with Acasuso pounding the forehand to the left sideline of the court, Federer’s backhands were rendered impotent in an unusual but unquestionably effective manner. The Swiss was fortunate to win the first set after surviving four set points, and unfortunate to drop a second set in which he made 69 percent of his first serves. All in all, though, the larger storyline had solidified: Acasuso was contesting the match on even terms, and deserved to fight through at least four sets of tennis. When Federer’s game unraveled at the start of the third set, Acasuso–to the amazement of everyone in the stadium–roared to a 5-1 lead and appeared ready to put the world No. 2 in a hole.

That’s when forehands and tactics ceased to matter, and the brain–that most potent yet puzzling of organs–took hold of his high-drama donnybrook.

Acasuso tweaked his ankle when serving at 4-1 in the third, but the ATP trainer never came on court. When the Argentine held for 5-1, it seemed that the incident would have little bearing on the remainder of the match. But then a wound greater than a tiny ankle twitch sabotaged the South American: A complete loss of composure.

Even when leading 5-2 (a double-break advantage as opposed to a single break), Acasuso’s body language began to acquire a noticeably hangdog appearance. Federer, smelling an opening, broke for 3-5 and held for 4-5. Given a second chance to serve for a two sets to one advantage, Acasuso continued to spray and sail the shots he’d been so consistently converting just minutes before. Federer broke for 5-all and–in a telltale third-set tiebreak–sniffed the finish line when the Argentine blew an easy backhand pass at 1-3. From that moment on, Acasuso–muttering to himself and his coach in the stands–painfully but plainly folded the tent. The fourth set came and went in 30 breezy minutes, nd Federer had made his great escape.

Inside-out forehands and clay-friendly groundstrokes are all well and good, but if the mind isn’t right, Grand Slam matches won’t fall in your favor. Just ask a gutted Jose Acasuso and a relieved Roger Federer after another Houdini act for the 13-time major champion.

American female tennis players have a way of winning on native soil. Australian and British girls don’t get many chances to wow the home crowd in Melbourne or suburban London. As for the females of France, the comforts of home just aren’t comfortable enough, and never seem to be sufficient on any day, in any time or season.

Hot or cold, sunny or overcast, dry or damp, it doesn’t matter: The ladies on the WTA Tour who know how to sing “La Marseillaise” (the French national anthem) just can’t perform when the French Open arrives. On Thursday at Roland Garros, a nation was once again plunged into a familiar realm of disappointment, as two seeded Frenchwomen put the “MAD” in “madmoiselle.”

In the day’s first match on Court Philippe Chatrier, 13th-seeded Marion Bartoli–the 2007 Wimbledon runner-up–was gently ushered out of Paris by Italy’s Tathiana Garbin, 6-3, 7-5. Later in the day on Court Suzanne Lenglen, France’s other seeded singles participant crashed out of the competition, as 21st-rated Alize Cornet bowed meekly to Romania’s Sorana Cirstea, 6-3 and 6-2. Just a few days after No. 16 Amelie Mauresmo made an inglorious exit from the tournament in round one, the pair of pathetic performances from Bartoli and Cornet only deepened the Gallic gloom that continues to haunt French tennis pros on the terre battue they know so well.

Both of these losses are enormously discouraging–not only for Bartoli and Cornet themselves, but for the French tennis federation, which had a right to expect a lot more from these players in light of past accomplishments. Bartoli soared to fame in her magical Wimbledon run of two years ago, but the woman with two-handed groundstrokes from both wings has not been able to back up that result with any convincing conquests. Bereft of so much as another slam semifinal showing in her last seven majors, Bartoli had an opening in this wide-open women’s field. This loss to Garbin suggests that a deep run at a future Grand Slam tournament isn’t about to emerge for Walter Bartoli’s daughter and pupil.

As bad as the Bartoli outlook must be, the already-cloudy skies of Paris–which never found a sunbreak in the early hours of Thursday afternoon–must feel even darker for Cornet. Four months ago at the Australian Open, Cornet had match points in the final set of her fourth-round match against Dinara Safina, only to let the Russian off the hook. Cornet lost that tension-fraught fistfight, and it seems that the 19-year-old–who had been steadily improving at slams–never emotionally recovered from the stomach-punch force of that stinging setback. A truly confident and invigorated player might not have toppled the 41st-ranked Cirstea–a solid competitor moving up the ranks of WTA professionals–but surely, Cornet could have done a lot better than to endure a listless 2-and-3 drubbing. With 24 unforced errors and only 16 winners against a not-too-powerful opponent, Cornet looked the part of a very young woman dealing with a crisis of confidence at this crucial juncture in her still-unfolding career. There’s plenty of time for Cornet to ripen into a complete player, but if this fragile Frenchwoman doesn’t regather her mind and her emotions, the looming specter of the Safina sob story in Australia (Cornet did indeed cry after losing that match) will continue to haunt her for years.

French tennis has had its moments of mirth and meaning in the past 15 years. Mary Pierce won a pair of Grand Slam titles and figured out a way to conquer Roland Garros. But unless or until this new generation of French professionals learns how to deal with the pressure of playing at home, more tears will be spilt on the terre battue of Paris.

The women’s portion of the 2009 French Open is developing a clear narrative through the first five days of action at Roland Garros: Champions rise under pressure, while pretenders fall by the wayside.

In the lastest example of an elite player coming through under fire, Venus Williams–the No. 3 seed in Paris–turned back a bold upset bid by Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic. Down a set and then forced to endure a terrifically tense final stanza, Venus found just enough of a finishing kick to prevail, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 7-5, in a 2-hour, 30-minute thriller on Court Suzanne Lenglen. The victory sends Venus into the third round, where she’ll face Hungarian Agnes Szavay.

For perspective on this match, it’s worth pointing out that Safarova isn’t a shrinking violet. To understand this, one needs to know a bit about her personal life (nothing too controversial or juicy, of course).

Safarova’s longtime boyfriend, fellow Czech professional Tomas Berdych, is a certifiable headcase on the ATP Tour. Safarova hasn’t made many deep runs at slams, but with an entirely respectable world ranking of 46, the 22-year-old has won at least one match in eight of the 16 slams she’s entered. In other words, a player ranked at the back end of the top 50 has reached the round of 64 half the time in a major championship–that’s not too bad. If Berdych–an immensely gifted but mentally hijacked mess of a man–could ever play up to his potential the way his tougher but less talented girlfriend does, the Safarova-Berdych friendship would have a lot more disposable income to play with.

As it stands, Berdych hasn’t made nearly as much prize money as he should; Safarova, on the other hand, has done reasonably well with the more limited tennis tools she’s been given. With this biographical background in mind, it wasn’t a huge shock that Safarova outlasted Venus in an even first set, winning the tiebreak by the smallest possible margin. Just a few days after her younger sister narrowly avoided a first-round loss against another Czech challenger (Klara Zakopalova), Venus was on the verge of stumbling out of Paris against a surging Safarova. Would the American veteran and seven-time Grand Slam champion find a way to mount a comeback on clay, her weakest surface?

In the following hour and a half of second-round slugging, the Court Lenglen crowd received an affirmative answer: The third seed would not allow herself to mentally check out against a Czech.

Venus found new life in a 32-minute second set–converting both of the break points presented to her–and sent the match into a third stanza. True to her character, Safarova battened down the hatches and–with the advantage of serving first–kept her nose in front through the first nine games, holding five times for a 5-4 lead. Venus–despite protecting her own serve in the set–had to toe the service line to stay in the match.

The 28-year-old from the mean streets of Compton, Calif., never wavered, and actually drew strength from daunting circumstances, as she’s done so many times before between the painted white lines. Venus held for 5-all, and then–with the pressure in the arena mounting–broke Safarova as champions so regularly manage to do at the business end of a cutthroat competition. Liberated by her newfound advantage, Venus then held at love to polish off a well-deserved victory that Safarova forced her to earn.

Cliches might get tired after awhile, but cliches exist because they’re true. In the world of big-time tennis, fewer truisms hold more water than this one: “Champions find a way.” Venus Williams lives on in Paris.

After ten months away from the WTA Tour, Maria Sharapova might be in the midst of re-learning the finer points of tennis technique, but while her groundstrokes still need polishing, there’s one thing the Russian superstar never forgot how to do: fight like hell.

Displaying the mental toughness and combative spirit that made her a three-time Grand Slam champion, Sharapova upset 11th-seeded compatriot Nadia Petrova in the second round of the French Open before an enthralled crowd on Court Suzanne Lenglen. On most days, Sharapova would rate as a clear favorite over Petrova, but in light of her extended absence from competitive tennis, the former world No. 1–now ranked 102nd–had to view her 6-2, 1-6, 8-6 victory as something of a surprise.

The tension in Petrova’s play, combined with Sharapova’s rust, produced a match that actually acquired a generally high level of ballstriking, but precious little consistency from either end. Points were played quickly, and momentum shifted endlessly, as the two Russians took very little time between serves, seemingly racing through their afternoon in order to avoid thinking too much on the court. The results seemed to justify the approach both players brought to this battle (both women finished with more winners than unforced errors), but it also meant that leverage was fleeting in the round-of-64 showdown. When crunch time came calling on the terre battue of France, the battle of nerves in this see-saw affair would be won by the player so thoroughly accustomed to using her mind as a weapon. Just like old times, it was Sharapova–not Petrova–who once again found a small but crucial measure of composure in the defining moments of a Grand Slam duel.

After the two Russians traded haymakers in two lightning-quick sets, the third and deciding stanza turned into a desperate and sometimes dazzling fight for survival. Petrova was on the ropes when serving at 1-2 and deuce, but a clutch topspin forehand helped her get out of trouble and hold for 2-all. Petrova sustained the momentum from that hold in the next two and a half games to build a 4-2 lead and gain a 15-40 opportunity on Sharapova’s serve. The Court Lenglen crowd sensed that a “mini-match point” was at hand. Sharapova had to escape a double-break ditch if this entertaining but uneven match was to continue well into the afternoon.

It was at this moment that Sharapova found the sterner stuff of a champion, while Petrova–briefly, but tellingly–lost the plot.

Sharapova used an ace to get to 30-40, but Petrova still had another break point chance. On a standard-issue second serve–a ball that shouldn’t just be returned, but crushed–Petrova picked the wrong time to spray a sloppy return wide of the right sideline. Sharapova–as all great players do–seized on her opponent’s moment of frailty by pounding her first serve down the middle “T” to hold for 3-4. Petrova still had the break lead, but the more accomplished player on the court had found a way to flip the flow of momentum, and sure enough, a shaken Petrova lost her serve when she toed the line after the changeover. At 4-all, 30-all, Sharapova–newly emboldened by her comeback–was able to hit another ace down the T, part of a third set in which the former world No. 1 smacked 6 aces and converted 70 percent of her first serves.

As the third set wound its way into the equivalent of overtime (there are no tiebreaks in the final set at the French Open), both players had steadied themselves on serve, but it was Sharapova who had to feel more comfortable about her position. By serving first in the third set, Sharapova had her nose in front in the final games of the match, while Petrova was constantly forced to serve just to stay alive.

At 7-6 in the third, Petrova’s resistance crumbled. The 11th seed double-faulted at 30-all and then jerked a backhand wide on match point, as Sharapova–amazed at her good fortune and elated at her ability to compete–beamed with the glow of a woman who realized that she still knows how to pull tough matches out of the fire. Petrova wrote another sad chapter in her tennis history, but Sharapova reminded tennis watchers just how much she cares about the sport. Because of her persistence, the three-time slam champion will now be able to spend at least two more delightful days in the world’s most romantic city. It is a love affair with tennis that has been consummated this week for one Maria Sharapova.

Much of the drama in the first week of a Grand Slam event concerns the middle-tier players fighting for added respect, bigger paychecks, and the momentum that can re-invigorate a career. In light of these tensions unique to the world of major championship tennis, it can be said that on Wednesday at Roland Garros, Nicolas Almagro’s stature gained a small but meaningful amount of stature, while Ernests Gulbis continued a sad and mystifying journey to the nether regions of his sport.

In a second-round match involving two of the ATP Tour’s more enigmatic figures, Almagro showed more staying power in a fully deserved four-set triumph over Gulbis. A 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-2 victory sends the 31st-seeded Spaniard into the third round, while Gulbis–his ranking sinking like a rock–will leave Paris in a state of crisis.

Before addressing the meaning of Almagro’s win, the more immediate story of this match is the weight of impact it will have on Gulbis’s ranking, not to mention the career of the 20-year-old Latvian. Gulbis reached the quarterfinals of last year’s French Open–by far his best Grand Slam result–so a second-round departure will generate a substantial forfeiture of points on June 8, when a new batch of ATP Tour rankings will take effect. Last year–under the previously existing point allocation formula–a quarterfinal showing in a slam tournament produced 500 points. (This year, it’s 360, but 2009 slam results will be measured against 2008 results when points are added or subtracted.) Therefore, Gulbis will lose 455 points with this exit in the round of 64. That’s not good news for a man who, on his best days, can bludgeon the ball and make gifted opponents look lost and helpless on the court. For whatever reason, the considerable talents of this 20-year-old have not been able to ripen as Gulbis’s teenage years have receded into the past. A body is getting older, but a mind is not getting wiser in the heat of big-match pressure. Ernests Gulbis has so much to offer the tennis community–not to mention himself–but this early loss will only make it that much more difficult for the Latvian to receive decent draws at Grand Slam events.

One man’s disappointment, however, is another man’s joy, and for Almagro, this gut-check victory couldn’t have been much sweeter.

At last year’s French Open, the one nicknamed “Nico”–like Gulbis–reached the men’s singles quarterfinals, but after getting humiliated by Rafael Nadal in three painfully bad 6-1 sets, the only thing Almagro heard about was his lack of guts. Forget the fact that the 23-year-old produced the best slam result of his career; the ugly nature of the triple-breadstick loss to Nadal, his more celebrated countryman, wiped away a lot of the positive publicity created by his four match wins at Roland Garros. As he returned to Paris for another go-round on red clay, Almagro needed to show that he could compete and prevail against credible opposition.

This win over Gulbis–no matter how troubled the Latvian might be at the moment–represents the very kind of scalp Almagro was looking for. In search of a way to write a new and encouraging chapter in a career that hasn’t quite taken off, Nico Almagro might have found the push his tennis journey so desperately needed. With a few more wins at this year’s French Open, a man with ample energy left in his young legs can still make a run at an upper-tier ranking on the ATP Tour.

As Day 4 of the French Open unfolded in Paris, Andy Murray provided a performance that generated more chatter than it silenced.

Still alive in the year’s claycourt major, but hardly in first-rate form, the third-seeded Scot had to grind out a 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 win over Italy’s Potito Starace in 2 hours and 40 minutes on Court Philippe Chatrier. Murray moves on to the third round at Roland Garros, but the prolonged battle raised fresh doubts about the 22-year-old’s ability to make a deep run at this event.

In many ways, the central question surrounding the world No. 3 is this: “Is Murray an elite player at this stage of his career, good enough–at any rate–to win best-of-five matches on clay with regularity?” The tennis community still doesn’t know the answer to that question, which the coming days will have to address. In trying to get a handle on Murray’s prospects in France, one has to balance the enormity of his talents against the limits of his claycourt credentials. Finding an accurate assessement is the key to pegging this world-class performer, but that’s a task that’s going to prove frustrating in the short run.

In order to more fully comprehend the mystery of Mr. Murray on clay, consider the larger context of any major tournament for its most accomplished contenders:

In the early rounds of a Grand Slam tournament, it’s not reasonable to expect top players to be firing on all cylinders. The trick of the trade in professional tennis is to use the first week as a springboard for an even better second week. The early rounds represent a training ground for the business end of the competition, so if a certain amount of weakness creeps into an elite player’s game in a round of 64 match, the news isn’t all bad… as long as victory is attained.

Murray did indeed win against the dogged 27-year-old Starace, scratching out a tough third set with opportunistic play on break points. By converting all three of his break point chances in the set, the Scot narrowly averted a tiebreak and managed to shrug off a second set in which Starace flourished. The fourth set was almost as vigorously contested as the third, but Murray–up two sets to one–found a crucial extra degree of confidence. The third seed improved his second serve and found just enough freedom on his groundstrokes to push past his persistent foe, who entered this second-round match ranked 104th in the world.

This slugfest was no picnic for Murray, despite a rankings differential of 101 slots in comparison with Starace, who escaped the first round at a slam for only the fourth time in 19 career appearances. The closely-contested nature of the match will lead experts and pundits in one of two directions.

On one hand, some talking heads and scribes will say, with considerable legitimacy, that Murray’s ability to dig out a victory will feed a growing sense of confidence on the terre battue. By hitting lots of balls under pressure–the end of the third set represented a time of genuine peril for the world No. 3–Murray might have passed the kind of test that will make him a more liberated lad as the French Open moves forward.

On the other hand, some observers will counter–also with a fair amount of logic–that the red clay turned what should have been a mismatch (between a #3 powerhouse and a 104th-ranked also-ran) into an even-fought fistfight. Murray won 125 points in this match and Starace 116, which means that the Scot snared just 52 percent of points, a number consistent with a genuinely narrow victory. The ease of his first-round victory–a 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 romp over Argentine veteran Juan Ignacio Chela–raised hopes that Murray would cruise through week one. This match won’t generate the same enthusiasm, but it’s certainly worth noting that a vigorous battle–with a little sweat in its latter stages–could actually work to Murray’s advantage.

Bottom line number one: No one really knows how this match will affect Andy Murray going forward. Bottom line number two: This close shave against Potito Starace made the French Open men’s singles tournament a lot more interesting.

Klara Zakopalova has never gone past the third round in any Grand Slam tournament she’s entered. Yet, the 27-year-old from the Czech Republic is someone Serena Williams won’t want to see in any future claycourt event.

Zakopalova–whose third-round showing at the 2003 Australian Open is her best result in 20 slam appearances–played far beyond her No. 100 world ranking on Tuesday in the first round of the French Open. The veteran survived eight match points and pulled off a rousing second-set comeback to thrill the crowd at Court Suzanne Lenglen, but in the end, Serena Williams had just enough in the tank to advance to the second round. The 10-time Grand Slam champion stayed on court far longer than she needed to, but Serena was able to walk away with a 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4 victory in 2 hours and 24 minutes. The hard-fought triumph enables the younger Williams sister to play Virginia Ruano Pascual on Thursday.

Much of the excitement generated by this first-round throwdown came from the abrupt reversals of momentum that characterized the last two sets. After Serena muddled through a workmanlike but distinctly unimpressive first set, Zakopalova charged out of the gate in the second stanza, racing to a 3-0 lead and making Serena appear to be stuck in quicksand. Just as soon as she fell behind, however, the 2002 French Open champion roared back with five straight games for a 5-3 lead and a hammer-lock grip on the match. Serena had five match points on Zakpolava’s serve at 5-3, but could never break through. Once the Czech challenger got out of jail, the tone of the second set changed. Despite serving for the match at 5-4, the best closer in women’s tennis couldn’t toe the service line successfully. Zakopalova broke to level at 5-all and ultimately worked her way to a tiebreak.

Once again, Serena–who is accustomed to putting her foot down in such situations–lacked the killer instinct that has served her so well in the past. The American’s 100th-ranked opponent carved out a 6-3 lead in the tiebreak, a crucial cushion that still held up after Serena won two service points to narrow the margin to 6-5.  Zakopalova needed to win the following point–her third set point of the tiebreak–because the prospect of another changeover (done every six points in a tiebreak) would have allowed the underdog to worry about an extended battle, while giving her American adversary a chance to gather her thoughts. The crucible of a tiebreak puts just as much pressure on the leading player as it does on the trailing player, so when Zakopalova served at 6-5 in the breaker, she needed to come through. When the Czech did indeed finish off the tiebreak to rousing cheers from a French crowd that wanted more tennis, the unthinkable–Serena losing a first-round Grand Slam match for the first time in her decorated career (37-0 entering today’s encounter)–was suddenly possible. And when Zakopalova broke for a 2-1 lead, the possible was on the verge of becoming probable, especially when Zakopalova then gained 40-love on her serve at 2-1.

Just when a magical moment seemed within the Czech’s grasp, however, her legendary opponent lifted her game.

Serena Williams is and has been the fiercest junkyard-dog warrior in the women’s game over the past several years, even more than recently-retired Justine Henin. At the precise instant when a major upset appeared to be in the offing, the second seed began to hit more freely, running the dogged but diminutive Zakopalova all over the court. Serena won five straight points to turn the Czech’s 40-love lead into a break of serve for 2-all. Just moments later, the younger Williams sister had accumulated a 5-2 lead and was ready to turn out the lights.

This Tuesday evening appointment–as proven before in the second set–just wouldn’t turn out to be that easy.

Having swatted away five match points in set two, Zakopalova saved three more match points at 2-5 to hold. Then, in another eerie repeat of the second set, Serena was broken while serving for the match. Momentum had changed, but there was one crucial difference: Serena still led on the scoreboard, by virtue of serving first. Zakopalova, despite being on serve, had to stay in the match in the tenth game of the final set, and when a forehand from the Czech sailed wide at 15-40, Serena–exultant at her escape–jumped up and down with vigor.

Serena Williams isn’t a favorite at the French Open, but if this unrelenting champion can will her way into the second week of competition, there’s hardly a guarantee that someone else on the WTA Tour will be able to take her down.