No. 1-seeded Maria Sharapova and No. 2 Ana Ivanovic advanced. Ivanovic reached the fourth round by beating 17-year-old Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-1.

Serena Williams

Williams, who played the day's first match on Court Suzanne Lenglen, converted only one of eight break-point chances and was 0-for-6 in the second set. She repeatedly set up points well but failed to finish them, losing 14 of 21 points at the net.

"There are a lot of things I would try to do different, but you can't rewind time," Williams said.

Her mother and coach, Oracene Price, said Williams has "been in a funk. It's not like her. She wasn't herself."

In the final game of the first set, Williams dumped an easy overhead into the net. Four points later, she worked her way forward but blew a volley, then bent over in dismay and pressed her forehead against the tip of her racket handle.

Another botched overhead cost her in the sixth game of the second set, helping Srebotnik to reach 3-3.

"I wasn't nervous," Williams said. "She was getting a lot of balls back, and I might have let that get into my head.

"She was just making some shots I don't think she's ever made before, or she probably would be in the top two."

When Williams fell behind she turned up the volume, grunting with almost every shot and screaming in celebration when she hit a winner. But she was unable to rally, and the No. 27-seeded Srebotnik kept her cool down the stretch.

"Today I woke up and it was just another opportunity," Srebotnik said. "This is what you work so hard for - to be in third round where you play Serena or someone like that and you have really nothing to lose."

Srebotnik credited her tactics for the upset, mixing the pace of her groundstrokes to keep Williams off balance.

"That was the rhythm that I was trying ... to get her on a wrong foot and stuff like that," Srebotnik said. "When she's serving well, she's very tough, but once I got in the rally I had no problem playing her."

In the second set, Williams hit an ill-advised drop shot into the net to lose serve and fall behind 5-4. She saved two match points in the next game, but on the third yanked a forehand wide for her 25th unforced error, then met Srebotnik at the net with a grin and handshake.

Williams was less gracious in her postmatch news conference, explaining her demeanor by saying, "I just don't want to be here."

No. 11 Vera Zvonareva beat Stephanie Cohen-Aloro 6-4, 6-2. In the completion of a second-round match, No. 25 Nadia Petrova swept Alisa Kleybanova 6-3, 6-3.

(Agencies via Shanghai Daily May 31, 2008)