Monday, June 5 2006 14:44 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Paris: Amelie Mauresmo was struck down by the curse of Roland Garros once again on Sunday as France's world number one crashed spectacularly out of the French Open. Australian Open champion Mauresmo, who has never got beyond the quarter-finals in 12 attempts, was beaten 6-7 (5/7), 6-1, 6-2 by highly-rated Czech 17-year-old Nicole Vaidisova in the fourth round. Vaidisova, the 16th seed who has already captured six career titles in her brief career, goes on to face Venus Williams for a place in the semi-finals.

"It's difficult to explain what happened," said 26-year-old Mauresmo who had beaten the Czech 6-1, 6-1 at the Australian Open.

"I went down physically at the start of the second set. She was dictating play. I just played with a little less intensity and I thought she would make more errors," she said.

Vaidisova, another product of the Bolletieri production line in Florida, was overjoyed at her victory.

"It feels great, it was one of my best wins," she said.

"It was a different atmosphere to Australia. I knew I needed to play faster and make the points shorter," she said.

The poster girl of women's tennis, Maria Sharapova was also packing her bags losing in three sets to Russian compatriot Dinara Safina, but defending champion Justine Henin-Hardenne sailed into the last eight beating 2004 winner Anastasia Myskina.

Men's world number one Roger Federer stayed on course to become only the sixth man to win all four Grand Slam titles as he brushed aside Czech Tomas Berdych, who beat him at the Athens Olympics, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.

That set up a mouth-watering last eight clash against Croatia's Mario Ancic who put out Spanish seventh seed Tommy Robredo.

Federer took just 106 minutes to complete his afternoon's work as he continued his campaign to be the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time.

The five men to have won all four Grand Slams are Americans Don Budge and Andre Agassi, Australians Roy Emerson and Laver, plus Britain's Fred Perry.

"The conditions at the Olympics were so different and extremely hard for me to play in," said Federer looking back on his defeat to Berdych in Athens.

"But things change over the years and I know him much better. I know usually where he hits his shots and so forth," she said.

Ancic overcame a late injury scare to knock out Hamburg Masters champion Robredo 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 and reach the quarter-finals for the first time.

Ancic, the 12th seed, saw his Davis Cup winning team-mate Ivan Ljubicic reach the last 16 beating Juan Monaco of Argentina 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in a match held over from Saturday.

The fourth seed will next play Spain's Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo for a place in the quarter-finals.

French teenager Gael Monfils also triumphed in a third round match which was halted the night before, beating America's James Blake, the eighth seed, 6-2, 6-7 (2/7), 7-6 (7/1), 5-7, 6-4 in a stormy encounter.

Monfils now meets fellow teenager Novak Djokovic of Serbia.

Russian sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko made the last eight beating 2004 champion Gaston Gaudio of Argentina 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

He now faces third seeded Argentinian David Nalbandian who put out compatriot Martin Vassallo Arguello 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

Dinara Safina stepped out of big brother Marat Safin's shadow when she sent Sharapova spinning out winning 7-5, 2-6, 7-5.

The 20-year-old Safina will face fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova for a place in the semi-finals.

Sharapova let a 5-1 final set lead slip against her gutsy opponent.

The former world number one had arrived in Paris not having played a clay court match all year after spending eight weeks on the sidelines nursing an ankle injury.

"She had nothing to lose at 1-5 in the final set," said Sharapova.

"The game at 2-5 opened up the door a little bit for her and you get hit in the head. I haven't had those kind of tough matches in the past few weeks," she said.

Henin-Hardenne, the 2003 and 2005 champion, saw off 10th seed Myskina winning 6-1, 6-4 and now faces Germany's Anna-Lena Groenefeld.

Eighth seed Kuznetsova struggled into her first Roland Garros quater-final beating Italy's ninth seed Francesca Schiavone 1-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Belgian second seed Kim Clijsters made it eight wins out of eight against hapless Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia winning 6-1, 6-4 and will now face either Martina Hingis or Shahar Peer for a semi-final place.

Their fourth round match was suspended until Monday because of poor light with the players locked at one-set each.

Williams came back to beat Swiss seventh seed Patty Schnyder 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.