Sharapova crashes out after ‘bad day at the office’

Maria Sharapova put her defeat in the French Open down to a “bad day at the office”, as she crashed out to Lucie Safarova in the fourth round.

Sharapova has reached three consecutive finals at Roland Garros, and won twice, but the number two seed was well beaten by Safarova, who came through 7-6 (7/3) 6-4 to inflict the biggest shock of the tournament so far.

Meanwhile, top seed Serena Williams survived another scare to go through. Williams was in danger of following her rival out of the competition, but the world number one came from a set down for the third consecutive time in Paris to beat fellow American Sloane Stephens 1-6 7-5 6-3.