Maria Sharapova would have been a favourite to win the 2008 French Open given her status as the world no. 1.
After all, she had just won her third ever Grand Slam title by beating Ana Ivanovic in the Australian Open final at the beginning of the year.
Wins over Evgeniya Rodina, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Karin Knapp in the opening three rounds at Roland Garros set her up for success.
But a fourth round meeting with fellow Russian Dinara Safina would see her run come to a surprise end in Paris.
Sharapova narrowly won the first set 7-6 [8-6] and then came within touching distance of a fourth French Open quarter-final.
She had a match point when 5-3 up in the second set but didn’t take her chance as Safina fought back to deliver a tiebreak.
Once again, Sharapova was leading against her compatriot before she squandered a 5-2 lead to miss out on an appearance in the last eight.
A testing third set would decide the match and in the sixth game, it seemed the pressure was beginning to increase when trailing 3-2.
Sharapova rescued herself at 40-30 down whilst serving to bring the score to deuce, and screamed towards the crowd: “Allez [Go on]!”
She then appeared to swear as the emotions ran high by shouting: “Up your f***ing a**!”
Just moments before, the French Open crowd seemed to side against Sharapova after challenging a forehand from Safina.
The gesture, which followed a missed backhand, saw the chair umpire check the mark and confirmed it was out to level the score at 15-15.
Some spectators responded to the check with boos and whistles, but then cheered when Sharapova lost the next point by hitting the net.
Her x-rated outburst followed at deuce, although Safina eventually broke her serve and moved two games adrift of winning.
The then 22-year-old won both to knock the leading women’s singles star out of the French Open in what was a huge shock.
Sharapova was booed by the crowd once again when she walked off the court and chose not to acknowledge them at the same time.
“I can’t please everyone,” she said after. “It’s not in my job description. I’m an athlete, and I go out there and fight my heart out.
“They paid the ticket to watch me, so they must appreciate me on some level, right?”
Analysing her win, Safina said: “It was all in her hands, but then I hit a winner on her match point and suddenly it changed.
“I started to hit the ball much harder. Before I had been focusing on her and not myself.”
Safina continued her winning run all the way until the final when she was beaten in straight sets by Ivanovic.
Four years later, Sharapova won her first French Open title to finally win a career Grand Slam, with a second victory coming in 2014.
