Mauresmo shines in spells

TENNIS - FRENCH OPEN:AMELIE MAURESMO showed glimpses of her past brilliance to reach the second round of the French Open with a 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 win over Ukraine's Olga Savchuk at Roland Garros yesterday.

The former world number one, seeded 22nd, needed two hours and 29 minutes to down her opponent and book a second-round meeting with the Spanish qualifier Carla Suarez Navarro, who beat Mauresmo's French compatriot Pauline Parmentier 6-4, 5-7, 6-2.

"There were ups and downs in the first two sets but obviously the third was much better," Mauresmo said. "I came here with little preparation, I had not worked on my serve because of my injury. Now, anything can happen."

Mauresmo, who had not played since a Fed Cup tie in Japan last month because of an abdominal injury, dropped serve three times in a scrappy first set but managed to break four times to take the early initiative.

A bold Savchuk, however, piled on the pressure in the second set and broke decisively in the 10th game to level the contest.

Mauresmo, who has two grand slam titles to her name but has never progressed beyond the quarter-finals in Paris, found her flowing backhand in the decider to win on her third match-point.

The Russian fourth seed, Svetlana Kuznetsova, was in fine form as she saw off Japan's Aiko Nakamura 6-2, 6-3, and Russia's Dinara Safina beat the Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko 6-1, 6-3.

The top seed Maria Sharapova opens her campaign today. Her match against her Russian compatriot Evgeniya Rodina was one of 30 to be postponed on a rainy day in Paris. The opening two-and-a-half hours were rained off and then after 90 minutes' action, the heavens opened again and play was suspended for three hours.

The reigning men's champion, Rafael Nadal, had his return to action at Roland Garros cut short by the rain after just nine minutes as play was suspended.

The 21-year-old Spaniard, trying to win his fourth title on the trot in Paris, was level at 1-1 with the Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci, a qualifier. He will resume his match today.

Earlier, Nikolay Davydenko of the Ukraine and Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka had maintained their focus in rain-interrupted matches to clinch comfortable straight-sets wins.

Fourth seed Davydenko beat Sweden's Thomas Johansson, the Australian Open winner in 2002, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 to set up a clash with Marat Safin or Jean-Rene Lisnard.

The 23-year-old Wawrinka beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 and will face Robin Haase or Marin Cilic next.

Davydenko has hardly been mentioned as a genuine challenger for the title this year.

Yet he won the clay-court tournament at Portschach last week and has made the quarter-finals or better here in the past three years.

In 2007, he gave top seed Roger Federer a run for his money before losing 7-5, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (9/7) in the last four.

Elsewhere, only three other matches in the men's draw were completed - and two of them saw seeds dumped out of the tournament in straight sets.

Argentina's Juan Monaco (13), seeded for the first time in the French Open and in decent form arriving to Paris after reaching the final at Portschach, was thrashed 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 by Sweden's Robin Soderling.

And Italy's Andreas Seppi (31) was dispatched 6-2, 7-6 (7/1), 6-2 by the big-serving Mario Ancic, who because of illness and injuries has not appeared at a grand slam since the 2007 Australian Open.