She had been shaky from the first afternoon and yesterday, the shriek caught in the back of Maria Sharapova's throat. A forgettable French Open was brought to a decisive end by Dinara Safina, Marat Safin's younger sister, who may just follow him into the grand-slam winner's circle.

If you listened closely, there was the odd but shrill jeer for Sharapova as she beat her retreat, golden racket bag slung over her shoulder, without pause to glance back at Court Suzanne Lenglen, where a group of youngsters were waiting for her to sign their giant tennis balls. They will not forget such dismissive treatment.

Sharapova, the No1 seed, had been treated fairly rudely herself, so she had a sense of how les enfants hurt. This was not a unique emotion for Safina, who had beaten her Russian compatriot at the same stage here two years ago, but Safina of 2006 was raw and 20; now she is a well-rounded, poised 22 and in the best form of her life.

Sharapova was chastened 6-7, 7-6, 6-2, having led the second-set tie-break 5-2. Yet Safina, steely nerved, refused to stop believing, striking out lustily, even when she led her first service game of the third set 40-0 and lost it. The wheels could have been shed, but she bounced right back.

The crux of the match arrived in the next game. On the first point, Safina hit the worst double fault of the championship and her next serve was wobbly. Sharapova should have made her opponent pay, but clumped a backhand return out of court and was not competitive thereafter. Safina plays Elena Dementieva, the 2004 runner-up, in the quarter-finals and should be aware that her fellow Russian has developed a fearsome serve to go with the rest of her game.

For Sharapova, this was a sixth Roland Garros without a sniff of the title. Her fellow top seed, Roger Federer, in his tenth year here, withstood the challenge from Julien Benneteau, of France, winning 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 and plays Fernando González, of Chile, in tomorrow's quarter-finals.