The defending champions are gone from this year’s French Open! Ana Ivanovic was defeated by Victoria Azarenka and Rafael Nadal was sent home by Robin Soderling. This year's Roland Garros is full of surprises!! Venus, Nole, Elena and now Ana and Rafa are out before the quarterfinals!

Victoria Azarenka needed only 55 minutes to beat Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 6-3! In the 17 games, Ana managed to hit 20 unforced errors while Azarenka hit only seven and pounded 24 winners past her fading opponent.

“I started really well, and I felt really good in the beginning. Then after the third game, actually after first point in the fourth game, I just suddenly started feeling so dizzy, and I completely lost my balance.” - said Ana.

It soon got even worse for Ana. She was forced to call for a trainer to look at her neck before the final game of the first set, but it still was unclear what the problem was. Azarenka then held in the next game to win the set, and broke Ivanovic's serve in the first and third games of the second to take a 4-0 lead.

"It's never easy to lose, and especially (because) I was feeling my game really well," Ana said. "So I'm very disappointed with today."


Azarenka said it was her best match of the tournament.

“I was very consistent today and very aggressive,” she said. “I didn’t let her play her game, which she normally does. I was just being, I think, too aggressive.”

When she came one point away from eliminating last year's champion and reaching her first career major quarterfinal, Azarenka managed to stay calm.

"I was playing point-by-point," Azarenka said. "I didn't look at it as (if) it was a match point. I just looked at it as (if) it was another point that I had to win."

Ivanovic also struggled in her opening match, being stretched to a tiebreaker by Sara Errani of Italy. But she easily moved through the next two rounds, losing only five games in those two matches.

"I wasn't really looking for any outcome or looking too much into the tournament. I just wanted to enjoy," Ivanovic said. "I was really proud of my efforts the first week. I was really feeling good out there."

"Even today and in the beginning, I felt great. I was hitting, striking the ball, and executing really well. That's why it's really hard."


In one of the biggest upsets in the long history of tennis, Robin Soderling defeated the four-time defending champion who had won 31 straight matches here - Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-4, 7-6 (2) ending his perfect record at Roland Garros.

"I didn't want him to make me run. I tried to be the one that made him run," said Soderling, who had 30 forehand winners during the match on center court. "I worked good with my forehand, and my backhand worked well, as well. I worked my backhand flat and tried to go around and hit my forehand."

"I think I played exactly the way I wanted to play before the match," Soderling said. "I served well, extremely well, and that really, really helped me today."

"During the whole match, I kept telling myself: 'This is just another match'," the 24-year-old Soderling said. "I don't care if it's the fourth round in (the) French against Nadal. This is just like any match. That helped me."

Rafael Nadal had never lost at Roland Garros, heading into the match with a 31-0 record and four titles to his name.

Although he won't get the chance to break his and Bjorn Borg's record of four straight French Open titles this year, he seemed to take the loss well.

"I didn't play my tennis, and for that reason I lose. That's it," said Nadal, who last year kept Federer from eclipsing Borg's record of five straight titles at Wimbledon. "I congratulate him and keep working hard for the next tournament."


(photo/AP Photo/Getty Images)

Goodbye for defending champions!