A flat-footed Ana Ivanovic and a completely out-of-sorts Polish third seed Agnieszka Radwanska made an early farewell to this year's French Open.
For a woman who showed no weaknesses while dispatching Venus Williams in the previous round, Radwanska unusually suffers stage fright when she comes face-to-face with 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.
So it proved again on Friday as the world number three froze on the biggest stage in claycourt tennis, winning a measly three games during a 6-1 6-2 humbling by the Russian sixth seed on Philippe Chatrier Court.
Kuznetsova now has a last-16 date with Sara Errani. The latter roared back from a first-set meltdown to beat Ivanovic 1-6 7-5 6-3 and reach the fourth round in Paris for the first time.
After assured performances in her last two outings, Ivanovic had high hopes of progressing beyond the fourth round of a major for the first time since her triumph here in 2008.
Maria Sharapova was far too strong for Japan's Ayumi Morita in a 6-1 6-1 demolition to book a place in the third round.
World number one Victoria Azarenka was just in the nick of time as she completed a 6-4 6-4 victory over Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak in the Paris gloom.
The pair were scheduled to be fifth on Court Suzanne Lenglen but, when it became clear they would not get on tonight, the match was moved to Court 1.
Azarenka would have hoped to wrap things up swiftly as the light faded but Wozniak is a talented striker of the ball and gave the world number one and Australian Open champion a tough time.
The top seed was always just about on top in the opening set and gained the crucial break of the Wozniak serve in the ninth game before serving it out.
Azarenka broke again at the start of the second set but she was struggling for consistency and allowed Wozniak to hit back straight away.
The 22-year-old moved ahead once more to lead 4-3 and, although she missed a match point on her opponent's serve, she made no mistake on her own delivery.
In the fourth round Azarenka will face 15th seed Dominika Cibulkova, who was an easy winner over Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez earlier.
