A sluggish and pale Justine Henin-Hardenne had her French Open title ripped from her grasp today as the Belgian suffered the earliest defeat of a women's top seed in the grand slam's history.
Never before since the women's event first welcomed international entrants in 1925 had a top seed lost before the third round but, under grey Parisian skies, last year's champion slumped 7-5 6-4 to little-known Italian Tathiana Garbin.
It was the shock of the tournament so far and a result which will leave a major question mark over the Belgian's health. She had not played a tournament since early April, having suffered a viral infection.
In the men's draw, Argentine Guillermo Coria continued his cull of compatriots while another tournament favourite, Carlos Moya, put friendship on hold to score a bittersweet second round win.
Coria's 7-5 6-1 6-3 victory over Juan Monaco was his 23rd win over a fellow Argentine in 25 meetings, while Moya's 6-1 6-2 6-1 destruction of Fernando Vicente was his 11th straight win over his friend. Sloppy and undisciplined on Court Suzanne Lenglen, Henin-Hardenne blazed 30 unforced errors in the one hour 58-minute match.
World number 86 Garbin should by rights have been outclassed by the player who had won three of the last four grand slam tournaments, but in reality the Italian looked the better player throughout.
Henin-Hardenne had not played a tournament since Amelia Island in the second week of April. Today she seemed to lack energy. She hit 10 doubles faults and lost her serve six times.
All Garbin had to do was move her around and wait for the error - a task which was not beyond her as she recorded the best win of an undistinguished career.
"I never played like this before," she beamed courtside. "I am so happy... I mean, she is world number one... this is incredible."
Third seed Amelie Mauresmo suffered jitters in her match but overcame a mid-match stutter to beat Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-0 4-6 6-1. The tournament's third seed and one of the favourites after her back-to-back victories in Berlin and Rome in the last month, Mauresmo will be relieved to have reached the third round of her home grand slam.
Fifth seed Moya had been barely able to look his friend Vicente in the eye throughout their one-sided clash on Court Suzanne Lenglen. "Well, it's not easy... he's my best friend on the tour," he said. "What I can say is I didn't have fun at all today, although I played a very good match and I won in straight sets playing solid. If it was against any other player, I would be happy."
Coria had no such remorse after beating the qualifier Monaco. "This was a good match today," he said. "I knew it would be a tough match. I know this will be a long tournament."
One hundred and forty ranking places separate Coria and Monaco but the match was far tighter than that statistic would suggest and third seed Coria was made to fight all the way.
Monaco was playing his first grand slam event but showed no sign of nerves, taking an early lead in the opening set before Coria, the form player on clay this year, overhauled him with some determined counter-punching.
Coria, whose claycourt 31-match winning streak ended in the final of the Hamburg Masters earlier this month, will face Croatian Mario Ancic next.
Earlier, Russia's Nadia Petrova was the first player into the third round after beating Yuliana Fedak 6-0 6-1. A semi-finalist last year, the eighth seed was never in trouble against the overwhelmed Ukrainian on court two and remains on track for an anticipated fourth round clash with fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva. Petrova beat Zvonareva in the quarter-finals here last year.
An ill-looking Zvonareva overcame a sluggish start to oust Spain's Magui Serna 5-7 6-1 6-4.