Russian fourth seed Maria Sharapova booked her place in the French Open third round on Wednesday with a 6-4, 6-1 win over the Czech Republic's Iveta Benesova.
Updated at 1.30 am, Thursday
PARIS: Russian fourth seed Maria Sharapova booked her place in the French Open third round on Wednesday with a 6-4, 6-1 win over the Czech Republic's Iveta Benesova.
Sharapova now takes on either Australia's Alicia Molik or Anda Perianu of Romania for a place in the next round.
The Russian fourth seed brought her glamour to the centre court but also steel and shrieks to see off the world number 53.
After an early exchange of breaks, the match was interrupted by rain for 77 minutes.
Sharapova returned to the court to wrap up the first set with an ace.
Rain stopped play a second time a few minutes later although this did not affect the 2004 Wimbledon champion who needed 36 minutes to pocket the second set.
Sharapova, who has been hampered by an ankle injury, saved a match point in her first round match against American Mashona Washington before winning in three sets.
Top seed Amelie Mauresmo of France reached the third round by defeating Vera Dushevina of Russia 6-1, 7-6 (7/5).
Mauresmo will play Serb Jelena Jankovic, who hit back to defeat Marion Bartoli of France 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, for a place in the last 16.
Mauresmo, who made her Grand Slam breakthrough in January by winning the Austalian Open, did not serve as well as she had in her first-round match against American Meghann Shaughnessy and was broken four times.
The last meeting between the two players ended in a 6-1 6-2 thrashing of Dushevina at the Berlin Open but the Russian was not in a mood to be a mere sparring partner on her way to the Paris final.
“It was great to play today despite the conditions but I reckon I struggled with my tennis,” said Mauresmo.
The Suzanne-Lenglen court favourite was the first player to hold serve in the third game and never looked back, grabbing the first set in 34 minutes.
The Russian reacted strongly in the second, racing to a 4-2 lead after breaking Mauresmo twice.
Mauresmo raised her game to level the match at 5-5 but was broken once more, running to the net to give Dushevina a chance to force her into an uncertain third set.
Instead, Mauresmo found the resources to steal the Russian''s serve a last time and went on to win the resulting tie-break 7-5 after squandering three match points.
Venus Williams reached the third round on Wednesday, defeating Emma Laine of Finland 7-6 (7/2), 6-2.
The 11th seeded American next plays Karolina Sprem of Croatia who won her second round tie when opponent Shuai Peng of China retired while losing 6-4, 4-3.
In a match which finished at 9.48 pm in front of around 100 spectators, the Wimbledon champion clinched victory with a forehand winner.
On a rain-hit day, the two players did not even get on to centre court until after 8 pm and an out-of-sorts Williams quickly found herself 4-0 down to the world number 71.
But the 11th seed, runner-up at Roland Garros in 2002, hit back well and snatched the tiebreak 7-2 before clinching victory before light faded away.
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