Tennis:Serena Williams huffed and puffed her way into the second round of the French Open on Tuesday, ending a run of four straight defeats in the process. Williams needed nine match points to finish off the brave challenge of Klara Zakapalova, winning one of the best matches of the tournament so far 6-3 6-7 (5/7) 6-4.
The little-known Czech had looked down and out when she trailed by a set and 5-3 but she saved five match points in the second set before winning it on a tie-break and then came back from 5-2 down in the decider before finally slipping to a narrow defeat.
Williams, the champion at Roland Garros in 2002, came into the match having lost her last four matches, three of them on clay, with her last win coming back on April 2.
She soon set about ending that miserable run and took the first set comfortably enough.
Zakapalova, who had beaten Williams during her barren run in Marbella last month, raced into a 3-0 lead in the second but the American struck back to reel off five games in a row.
At that stage the game looked up for the Czech but she dug deep to hold in game nine, saving five match points, much the delight of the Court Suzanne Lenglen fans.
She had produced some impressive tennis and continued to raise her level as she traded with the powerful Williams from the back of the court, despite giving away almost 3st in weight.
Her determination earned further reward when Williams double-faulted in the following game to make it 5-5.
A tie-break followed and in it Zakapalova moved 6-2 ahead. Williams saved three set points but was then left wrong-footed on the baseline and found herself in a final set.
The alarm bells must have been ringing when Williams was broken in game three of the decider and then fell 40-0 down.
But Zakapalova failed to make it 3-1 and was also unable to take another break-point opportunity in Williams' next service game.
Williams duly broke and at 5-2 looked home and hosed.
Yet there was still drama to come as Zakapalova saved three more match points at 3-5 and then broke serve again to make it 5-4.
But when serving to level up at 5-5 the world number 100 finally wilted and after two hours and 25 minutes on court, she sent a forehand wide to give Williams a hard-fought victory.
The second seed will play Virginia Ruano Pascual in the next round.
Earlier, fifth seed Jelena Jankovic progressed to round two with victory over Petra Cetkovska.
The Czech played her part in a competitive match, but Jankovic came through 6-2 6-3 to book her place in the last 64.
An early break for the Serb meant she was 4-1 up when rain arrived and delayed play for around two hours.
When play resumed Jankovic clinched the first set after 34 minutes on court.
A see-saw second set was much more competitive, however. Jankovic twice moved a break ahead but on each occasion Cetkovska immediately retrieved it.
The decisive service break in game eight but even then Jankovic had to save break points before serving out and clinching the win.
Svetlana Kuznetsova got her title bid off to a solid start.
Predictably the seventh-seeded Russian proved too good for French wildcard Claire Feuerstein, beating her 6-1 6-4 on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
A nervy start from the home hope saw her produce a host of errors - 11 in the first set to Kuznetsova's one - and when play was halted due to rain, Kuznetsova had already established a 5-1 lead.
Following a two-hour delay, she quickly wrapped up the set upon the resumption before running into stiffer resistance in the second.
However, a break of serve in game seven proved enough for the 2006 runner-up to complete a routine straight-sets victory.