Champion Kuznetsova dumped out
Svetlana Kuznetsova's defence of her French Open title ended after she was dumped out of Roland Garros in round three by Maria Kirilenko.
Sixth seed Kuznetsova was lucky to even be in the third round after Andrea Petkovic squandered a 40-0 lead serving for victory against her on Wednesday.
And she almost repeated the trick when she repelled two match points from her Russian opponent. But Kirilenko made no mistake with her third to wrap up a 6-3 2-6 6-4 victory on Court One.
Kuznetsova's defeat to the 30th seed came close to being overshadowed by an extraordinary match on Philippe Chatrier Court, which saw French golden girl Aravane Rezai squander and save three match points against Nadia Petrova before tournament officials finally suspended play for the evening with the pair locked at 7-7 in the decider.
Serena Williams gave herself plenty of recovery time for her next match against 29th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova by racing through her postponed second-round clash with Julia Goerges 6-1 6-1 in just 55 minutes on Suzanne Lenglen Court. Her next test will come on Saturday against Pavlyuchenkova, who beat Jill Craybas 6-4 6-1.
Her sister Venus became the first woman through to round four after easing past 26th seed Dominika Cibulkova 6-3 6-4 on Philippe Chatrier Court.
The day began with three second-round matches in progress after Thursday's play was blighted by rain. Four-time champion Justine Henin extended her winning streak at Roland Garros to 23 matches and 39 sets by polishing off Klara Zakopalova 6-3 6-3.
The 22nd seed will now face Maria Sharapova in arguably the clash of the tournament so far after the Russian 12th seed also converted a one-set overnight lead into 6-3 6-3 success over Kirsten Flipkens.
Marion Bartoli (13) finished off her match against Olivia Sanchez with a 7-5 6-2 win. In second-round clashes which started on Friday, seventh seed Samantha Stosur beat Rossana De Los Rios 4-6 6-1 6-0, Daniela Hantuchova (23) got past Olga Govortsova 7-5 6-3 and Yanina Wickmayer (16) ousted Sybille Bammer 7-6 (7/4) 1-6 7-5.
But 25th seed Jie Zheng was knocked out 6-4 6-3 by Anastasia Pivovarova.
