The carnage in the women's draw continued with the shock defeat of Venus Williams at the hands of Barbara Schett.

Schett has in the past reached as high as number seven in the world, but her recent form is poor.

So it was certainly a surprise that she beat Venus who looked indestructible towards the end of last year.

Before the end of the first day of the French Open six of the top players are already out.

Admittedly four had withdrawn through injury, but it is now hard to pick a favourite with any great confidence.

And Schett was more than happy to take advantage.

"She played a lot of bad tennis today, but who cares!" said Schett gleefully.

"I was down 2-0 but she was missing a lot of good chances. And I knew that if it carried on like that I would have a chance.

"I knew Venus was not playing well, and that she was making a lot of unforced errors."

However, while Schett was happy that Venus was struggling to find her form, her opponent's inconsistency threw up some problems in itself.

"Sometimes it's hard to get a rhythm," said Schett.

< "Because she hits a mistake and then a winner and then a mistake and then a winner."

"I've been enjoying playing tennis much more than I did before.

"For me it was just a matter of time before I started playing well again

"I was feeling great out there when I won the last point, really happy, - it's wonderful."

Venus must have seen it as a great chance for a first title at Roland Garros, and she put her defeat down to a bad day at the office.

"I just had a rough day - I wasn't playing normal.

"I think it was my groundstrokes, I couldn't keep a ball in."

Venus has plenty of interests outside tennis, and she often takes time out from the game.

But she insisted that a two-week break since her last tournament was not the reason for her lack of form.

And while she was clearly disappointed, she was still able to put her defeat in perspective.

"It's not a setback, it's just a loss," she said.