Anett Kontaveit upsets Petra Kvitova in French Open third round

Updated 02/06/2018 at 21:12 GMT

Annet Kvitova upset eighth seed Petra Kvitova in the third round of the French Open on Saturday after a straight-set victory in Paris.

Kontaveit overcomes Kvitova in the third round

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Kvitova, one of seven women's Grand Slam champions in action on Day Seven, was edged out in a tight tussle on Court One -- snapping a 13-match winning run.

The eighth seed began in confident fashion against the Estonian she beat on the way to the Madrid title last month, but a 3-1 lead turned into a 5-3 deficit.

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Kvitova recovered to take the opener into a tiebreak but Kontaveit, herself in fine form on clay, edged it 8-6.

Kontaveit rallied from 2-4 in the second set but squandered two match points when serving at 5-4 -- missing two regulation forehands -- and Kvitova dug in to level at 5-5. The 25th seed served for the match again at 6-5 but faltered once more.

She received a gift in the tiebreak though when Kvitova slammed a smash long at 3-5 and although Kontaveit double-faulted on her first match point she sealed her first career win over the twice Wimbledon champion on the next one.

Open champion Sloane Stephens clung on for dear life to reach the fourth round of the French Open with a 4-6 6-1 8-6 victory over Italian Camila Giorgi.

The American 10th seed had dropped just six games in her previous two matches and stepped onto a sunbathed Court 18 holding a perfect record against Italian opponents at majors.

But such statistics mattered little to Giorgi and she left Stephens yelling "What the hell's going on?" after breaking the American to go 6-5 up in the final set.

Giorgi came into the contest knowing she had the game to trouble the American, having won their last two encounters in straight sets, and it was no different on Saturday as she served for the match at 5-4 and again at 6-5.

But Stephens kept her nerve to break back on both occasions and was mightily relieved when she saw Giorgi's backhand zip beyond the baseline on her first match point.

Stephens will hope her body does not suffer too much fatigue from the two hours 26 minutes tussle as she will be back on court on Sunday for a showdown with Kontaveit.

Caroline Garcia suffered some late jitters but produced an impressive performance to beat Romania's Irina-Camelia Begu 6-1 6-3 and reach the last 16.

Serena Williams advanced easily with a 6-3 6-4 against a resolute Julia Gorges.

Angelique Kerber defeated Kiki Bertens with a slim 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-4) triumph.