Maria SharapovaNo. 3 seed, Maria Sharapova of Russia, went down in defeat today to No. 25 ranked Flavia Pennetta of Italy 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in round 3 of the U.S. Open.

Maria’s serve was part of the problem that led to her early exit, committing a dozen double-faults. That really came as no surprise, as Maria’s serve has been causing her lots of problems since her shoulder surgery. What was surprising though was that Maria’s shots let her down in the third set. Maria was unbeaten this year in 12 previous matches that went three sets. But today she dropped the last seven points in a match that lasted 2 1/2 hours. After trailing 3-0 and 4-1 in the last set, Maria turned things around briefly, getting to 4-all, 15-30 on Flavia’s serve, looking once again like she might be able to pull out a come-from-behind 3-setter. But the 2006 U.S. Open champion wouldn’t win another point.

After the match, Flavia said: “

[Maria is] a good fighter. You can never give up with her. You have to be focused until the last game, until the last point, actually. But I think at 5-4 {in the 3rd set} she’s starting to feel a little bit of pressure, also. She has a lot of double faults. But during this season also she played really good, she had good results, but also with the serve, she wasn’t serving like before. So I think she’s just feeling the pressure.”

Maria had this to say about the match: “I made way too many unforced errors. I fought back to get myself back in the match in the third set. I think the first three, four games, on every game I had a chance to win that game, whether it was a breakpoint or it was a game point on my serve, and I didn’t win those games. When you’re down 1-4 and you get yourself back in a position where can you win again and start making errors, it’s just too inconsistent to win the match against [Flavia]… I think she played really smart. That’s her game, and she makes you hit a lot of balls.”

Flavia will play No. 13 seed Peng Shuai in round 4.