No. 142, Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan, shocked the French Open defending champion, Li Na of China, 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 in round 4 of the 2012 French Open.
Li, who defeated Francesca Schiavone in the final last year, looked to be in control of the match in the opening set but the cool and windy conditions did not help her and she succumbed to the greater consistency of Shvedova. After a confident start, the 30-year-old Li went through a spectacular meltdown in the second set and never recovered. She finished with 41 errors and was broken seven times by her 24-year-old opponent, 2010 doubles champion at Wimbledon and the US Open.
“I will take some days off to totally forget tennis, then try to come back next week” said Li, who hasn’t won a title since her Paris triumph 12 months ago. “I need some time to recover, I’m not a machine. I just tried to play the ball back to the court, but I couldn’t. I will find out why. But not today.”
Li was trying to become the first woman to successfully defend the French Open title since Justine Henin in 2007.
Shvedova next faces either the Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova, or the American Varvara Lepchenko, while Li’s defeat means no former champions are left in the women’s draw.
