Stosur stuns Dementieva, Kuznetsova strolls

Showing she’s not just a fast court player with a big serve and forehand, Australian Samantha Stosur stunned fourth seed Elena Dementieva 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 and entered the second week at the French for the first time. Coolly recovering from an up-and-down second set, the 30th seeded belted the Russian in the final set, dictating with her serve, taking risks during her return games and playing consistent, lethal tennis from the back court. The Olympic gold medalist, who benefited from Australian Jelena Dokic's retirement in the previous round, was beside herself after the defeat, saying she’s had so many disappointments in Paris. “I just feel I'm far away from being in the good shape,” Dementieva said. “I feel like I couldn't perform any better. She was playing very solid, very good first serve. I was not able to just to stand there. Just too many unforced errors and not enough power from me. I did what I could.” Stosur avenged her 2009 Australian Open loss to the Russian. “That was a match where I was up, I think, 5 2 in the first set,” she said. “Probably the main reason why I didn't win that set was lack of belief. So I knew that if I could try and turn that around today, I definitely had the game to trouble her. It was just the situation, if I could handle that. Today I did, and I felt great. I just think it's a big step for me.” Stosur will face either Italian Tathiana Garbin or France's Virginie Razzano in the fourth round. Dementieva’s fellow Russian, Svetlana Kuznetsova, fared much better, smoking Hungary’s Melinda Czink 6-1, 6-3. The 2006 finalist has been on a roll during the past six weeks, winning Stuttgart, reaching the Rome final and only dropping 11 games in her first three matches here. “I saw the court pretty well,” she said. “I see the empty spots on the court, and I played there. I think I controlled all of the match.” While Kuznetsova has had some harrowing moments in Paris before, she’s dictating beautifully with her inside out forehand, moving quickly and to date, hasn’t felt her hands shake to the point where she couldn’t stroke the ball. “You have nerves because you care about this,” she said. “It's your job, but at the same time I care about it and I want to win. Definitely I have nerves and it's fine. The important thing is accept it and control it. I feel good with myself, because I just go out there and it doesn't matter what happens. I’m gonna be there and I’m gonna be playing. This is my main thing. I just keep things simple.” She face Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska in the next round, who took a 6-2, 6-4 win over Kateryna Bondarenko.