Polish teenager polishes off Sharapova

This was a case of actions speaking far louder than words, and the way things slipped away, so suddenly and stunningly, Sharapova clearly was flustered — by the swirling wind and bright sun, by her errant strokes and, most of all, by the Krakow Kid across the net who kept moving way up to receive serves.

Sharapova reeled off eight consecutive games to go up a break in the third set, then dropped the final six games and lost 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 to 18-year-old Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the third round, the earliest exit by a No. 2-seeded woman at the U.S. Open since 1981.

"I don't know if it was a combination of the circumstance or the wind or the opponent playing well. I don't know what it was," said Sharapova, who double-faulted a whopping 12 times. "I just didn't quite feel like me out there."

The braces-wearing, big-hitting Radwanska isn't exactly a nobody.

She won the junior championships at the French Open in 2005 and Wimbledon in 2006, took home her first tour title this month and came to New York seeded 30th. Still, she understood the circumstances Saturday.

"I had nothing to lose. She was the favorite — and I think she was more nervous," said Radwanska, who will fulfill a pre-match promise to her younger sister, this year's Wimbledon junior champion, by buying them matching Louis Vuitton handbags to celebrate the upset.

She wasn't the only 18-year-old from Eastern Europe who pulled off a big win Saturday: Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat 1997 champion Martina Hingis 3-6, 6-1, 6-0, and Agnes Szavay of Hungary eliminated No. 7 Nadia Petrova 6-2, 6-3.

Nearly as quickly as Sharapova came unraveled, Federer came together. Remarkably, he did not make an unforced error — not a single one — during a 105-point stretch that included the entire second and third sets in his 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 victory over 6-foot-9-inch American wild card John Isner.

For one glorious set, the 184th-ranked Isner stayed right with the man who's been at No. 1 for a record 187 straight weeks. And when Isner ended a 13-stroke exchange with a big forehand approach shot, then smacked service winners at 134 mph and 124 mph, he took that first set in a tiebreaker.

"Four months ago, I was unranked," Isner said. "To go from that to beating Roger Federer in a set is pretty cool."

Federer's win set up a fourth-round meeting against Feliciano Lopez, who ended the run of 18-year-old Donald Young of the United States by winning in four sets.

The Federer-Lopez winner will take on the winner of No. 5 Andy Roddick vs. No. 9 Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals.

Today

• What: U.S. Open

• TV: 8 a.m. on Ch 13; 4 p.m. on USA