Paris ? Nothing was going right for Kim Clijsters, who sprayed strokes long, short and wide against an opponent playing the match of her life at the French Open.

Yet last year’s runner-up was nothing but calm, almost oddly so.

Argentina's Clarisa Fernandez returns a forehand to Belgium's Kim Clijsters. Fernandez stunned Clijsters, 6-4, 6-0, on Friday in the French Open in Paris.

She didn’t toss her racket or yell at herself or kick at the dirt or act in any of the other ways plenty of players, including her boyfriend, top-ranked Lleyton Hewitt, have been known to when frustration sets in.

The No. 4-seeded Clijsters simply looked at her racket strings and sighed every so often during a stunning 6-4, 6-0 third-round loss Friday to Clarisa Fernandez, an Argentine ranked 87th who’d never won a Grand Slam match until this week.

“It’s still just a sport for me. I’m still young,” the 18-year-old Clijsters said. “I’m sure I’ll keep playing this tournament for a few more years.”

Venus Williams has had less success at the French Open than the other majors, but that could change soon. Her 6-1, 6-4 victory over No. 31 Rita Grande ensured she’ll supplant Jennifer Capriati at No. 1 in the rankings and put her into the fourth round against resurgent Chanda Rubin, who knocked off No. 23 Anne Kremer 6-1, 6-0.

Other round-of-16 matchups: No. 6 Monica Seles vs. No. 11 Daniela Hantuchova, No. 13 Elena Dementieva vs. Fernandez, and No. 10 Amelie Mauresmo vs. Paola Suarez, who finished off No. 27 Nathalie Dechy of France just as whispers spread through the Center Court stands that the country’s soccer team was beaten by Senegal at the World Cup.

Clijsters lost so quickly that she had time to go watch the end of U.S. Open champion Hewitt’s 6-1, 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-1 victory over No. 30 Sjeng Schalken.

Hewitt now faces No. 15 Guillermo Canas, who defeated 1998 French Open winner Carlos Moya in a match interrupted for an hour when police evacuated Court 1 because of an unattended briefcase in the stands. A bomb squad blew open the case, didn’t find anything worrisome, and fans were allowed back in.

Other men’s fourth-round pairings set Friday: three-time champion Gustavo Kuerten vs. No. 20 Albert Costa, No. 3 Tommy Haas vs. No. 22 Andrei Pavel, and two-time finalist Alex Corretja vs. Mariano Zabaleta.

An hour after her loss, Clijsters smiled while discussing her game’s momentary meltdown. She had 59 unforced errors against Fernandez, a 5-foot-101*2 left-hander, who is, as they say, just happy to be here (her goal right now is to crack the top 50).

It’s not that Clijsters who’s coming off a shoulder injury and had two tough matches earlier in Paris didn’t care about failing to reach the quarterfinals for the first time in the past five majors. It’s that she didn’t care TOO much.

“I’ve gone through enough things,” the Belgian said, “to realize that there are worse tragedies in life than losing a tennis match.”

A sense of how to live with the highs and lows of top-level competition was instilled by Clijsters’ parents: father Lei was on Belgium’s 1990 World Cup team, and mother Els was a national gymnastics champion.

“After this tournament, there’s another tournament,” Clijsters said.