ESPN 2009 French Open

PARIS -- Russian fourth seed Elena Dementieva was eliminated Saturday in the third round of the French Open with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 defeat by Australian Samantha Stosur.

Serena Williams rallied to escape the same fate, beating Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, but after the match accused Martinez Sanchez of "cheating."

The Olympic champion Dementieva, who benefited from Jelena Dokic's retirement in the previous round while she was one set down, bowed out after 2 hours, 12 minutes.

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Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty ImagesRussian Elena Dementieva was eliminated Saturday with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 loss to Samantha Stosur.

"I just feel I'm far away from being in good shape. I feel like I couldn't perform any better," Dementieva told a news conference.

"She was playing very solid, very good first serve. Just too many unforced errors and not enough power from me. I did what I could."

The second-seeded Williams seemed to have trouble dealing with her opponent's serve-and-volley tactics, and piled up plenty of unforced errors.

But she managed to avoid the fate of her sister Venus, who lost on Friday. Both lost in the third round last year.

Williams also struggled in the first round, but she easily advanced from the second after losing only two games.

Williams was broken once in the first set, but she complained about the final point, which she believed hit her opponent's arm.

"The ball did touch her 100 percent on her arm," Williams said. "The rules of tennis is when the ball hits your body, then it's out of play. You lose a point automatically. So the ball hit her body, and therefore, she should have lost the point instead of cheating."

Martinez Sanchez said the ball hit her racket.

"I'm, like, drama. And I don't want to be drama," a hoarse Williams said, straining to get the words out. "I'm like one of those girls on a reality show that has all the drama, and everyone in the house hates them because no matter what they do, like, drama follows them. I don't want to be that girl."

NBC, which televised the match, showed The Associated Press replays in which the ball appears to glance first off Martinez Sanchez's right forearm, then off her racket, before going over the net. Tennis rules say if a ball touches a player, the point is lost.

As the women headed to the ensuing changeover, Williams tried to say something to Martinez Sanchez, who kept walking. Then Williams spoke to the chair umpire, Emmanuel Joseph, saying, "I felt so bad. I didn't mean to hit her."

Repeatedly pointing to her own forearm, Williams told Joseph, "I don't know why you gave her the game. That's totally not cool."

"She better not come to the net again," Williams said.

Could Martinez Sanchez have been unsure whether the ball made contact with her arm?

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Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty ImagesSerena Williams reacts after beating Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.

"I hit that ball rather hard," Williams said. "She knew that ball hit her."

A moment later, rolling her eyes, Williams added: "It was like, 'No way.' I would never do that. I've never done that. I've never sunk low."

When Williams' comments were relayed, Martinez Sanchez said: "I don't like to comment about this. It's a stupid comment."

Asked in both English and Spanish whether the ball hit her, she repeatedly said it went off her racket.

Serbian fifth seed Jelena Jankovic easily advanced with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Australian Jarmila Groth.

Seventh-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova also moved on, beating Melinda Czink of Hungary 6-1, 6-3.

Stosur, seeded 30th, relied on a devastating forehand to break decisively in the eighth game of the first set.

"As that match went on today I knew I could get there, because I was playing [well] enough and was handling the conditions and everything maybe a little bit better than her," Stosur said.

Dementieva saved a set point as Stosur netted a routine volley, but she was outwitted when the Australian came to the net after a weak service return.

Dementieva was the first to hold serve for 3-2 in the second set and she hung on to level the contest on her second set point when Stosur overcooked a forehand.

The Australian raced to a 4-0 lead in the decider and prevailed on her second match point with another forehand winner, setting up a fourth-round meeting with Italian Tathiana Garbin or France's Virginie Razzano.

Stosur converted seven of her 15 break points against Dementieva, the 2004 runner-up at Roland Garros.

Stosur has never before reached the fourth round at the clay-court Grand Slam tournament. She reached the same stage at the 2006 Australian Open, but has never made the quarterfinals at a major.

Dementieva set her sights on next month's Wimbledon.

"I'm going to take two days off and then just try to work on my physical condition and make sure that I'm going to be ready to move in the right direction on the grass court, because it's very special," she said.

Jankovic quickly tore through her first set after dropping serve in the opening game.

Jankovic, chasing her first Grand Slam title, was broken again in the sixth game of the second set before claiming victory when the 73rd-ranked Groth netted a forehand.

"I cruised through the match and did my job, did what I had to do in order to win," said Jankovic, who has dropped to No. 5 in the world rankings.

Kuznetsova, the 2004 U.S. Open champion, reached the French Open final in 2006.

"I was just doing my thing," Kuznetsova said. "I was depending on myself and not on her. ... I think I controlled all of the match."

No. 9 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus completed her comeback over No. 22 Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 5-7, 7-5, 6-2. Suarez Navarro won the first set Friday and Azarenka took the second before play was suspended because of darkness.

No. 12 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, No. 24 Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada and unseeded Virginie Razzano of France also advanced, while No. 10 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark lost to Sorana Cristea of Romania 7-6 (3), 7-5.

Information from Reuters and The Associated Press was used in this report.