TENNIS FRENCH OPENTHE FRENCH are a game, raucous crowd. They were rasping to Serena Williams at Roland Garros in 2003 and they were unruly again last year when Maria Sharapova played Patty Schnyder in the fourth round having being warned by the umpire for taking too much time.

Voila, they were stridently at it again yesterday when they booed the world number one, Sharapova, off the court following her fourth round collapse against fellow Russian, Dinara Safina.

There is a certain cruelty about how vicious the Parisian crowd can be but so too is there usually a reason and the French possess an uncanny instinct for what they perceive to be poor behaviour from a champion, especially when it comes from the sport's principal diva.

When Williams was jeered it was because she was seen to be calling shots before the umpire had decided. Up went her finger when a long ball went near a baseline. Sharapova was also guilty of showing too much haste in making calls at the beginning of the third set in a match that was tumbling in the direction of her opponent.

Sharapova will also be haunted by her throw-away but caustic reaction after last year's match with Schnyder.

"It's pretty hard being a tennis player and Mother Theresa at the same time," she said after beating the Swiss player.

Yesterday, while probably still in mild shock following the sharp decline from match point on serve at 5-2 in the second set to a 6-7, 7-6, 6-2 defeat, Sharapova was in understandable denial.

Q: The crowd seemed pretty hostile to you as they were last year. How disappointing was that?

A: "They were hostile to me last year? When?"

Q: Against Schnyder.

A: "They were?"

Q: Well yeah. You said it's hard to be Mother Theresa.

A: "Yeah, I can't please everyone. It's not in my JD. Not my job description. I mean they paid the ticket to watch me so they must appreciate me at some level. Right?...You don't look convinced."

Q: It didn't appear that way. I guess they're entitled to express their feelings. And they did.

A: "God. I love you guys."

In another profession in another country two stressed-out young Russians standing on a tennis court, one screaming at the ground, the other howling at the sky would be seen as unusual. Not yesterday.

At various points both Sharapova and Safina were at odds with themselves and the world, Sharapova bending down at the back of the court in the third set and audibly screaming, 'come on kick her f**king ass." The crowd didn't mind that in the least.

But by then her slide was unstoppable. She had come into the tournament as the world number one after Justin Henin retired but had not shown authority on the clay in any of her three preceding matches.

In the first set Safina seemed to have an edge but Sharapova roared back and from 6-4 down in the tiebreak and managed to pinch the set. It was difficult to know whether that brought relief or fuelled confidence.

Safina then broke the Sharapova serve in the first game of the second set following a rain break but again the number one illustrated her diamond edge and five straight games later was serving for a quarter-final place at 5-2 up and with one match point.

But it then began to unravel.

A backhand winner from the 13th seed turned the match around and forcing another tiebreak, where she went 5-2 down, Safina scrambled back into the match to clinch the second set against the odds and put grave doubts in the head of Sharapova who was alternately hitting clean winners and driving the ball feet wide, while her first serve, which won 64 per cent of the points, was again weak under pressure.

The momentum swung clearly with the younger sister of former Australian and US Open champion, Marat, in the third set. Working on the confidence gleaned from victories over Justin Henin and Serena Williams in Berlin earlier in the year, Safina broke the tiring Sharapova's serve in the sixth game before clinching victory two games later on her second match point.

"I had many opportunities and many chances in the match," said a despairing Sharapova.

"I guess it can go in the wrong direction really fast."

Safina now meets another compatriot, Elena Dementieva, in the quarter-finals. Seeded seven, Dementieva appeared to be choking in the second set against Vera Zvonareva but recovered her poise to win 6-4, 1-6, 6-2.