Ivanovic dethroned, Safina keeps going

By Pritha Sarkar

PARIS (Reuters) - A half-hearted Ana Ivanovic surrendered her French Open crown without much of a fight when she was totally outclassed in the fourth round by a Belarussian teenager who never lost belief.

Victoria Azarenka has been rising up the ranks steadily and she finally announced her arrival on the big stage when she condemned the Serbian eighth seed to a 6-2 6-3 defeat.

As Ivanovic bid an early farewell to Roland Garros, champion-in-waiting Dinara Safina's headlong charge towards a maiden grand slam title showed no sign of running out of steam.

The Russian top seed flattened Aravane Rezai 6-1 6-0 to charge into the quarter-finals.

Men's third seed Andy Murray was also in sparkling form as he strung together four successive wins on his least favourite surface for the first time by stamping out the challenge of Croatia's Marin Cilic with a 7-5 7-6 6-1 win.

Murray let out a big yawn as he walked on to Suzanne Lenglen Court but it was Cilic who was soon wishing he had stayed in bed when 40 unforced errors flew off his racket to help the Scot on his way.

The win not only made him the first Briton to reach the last eight since 2004 but kept Murray in the race against Roger Federer to secure the world number two spot by the end of the tournament.

Former world number one Justine Henin urged Safina to stamp her mark on the sport and the Russian appears to have taken the message to heart, dropping only five games in four rounds at the claycourt major.