TENNIS in DEPTH.

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.

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Rain struck early on day three of the French Open at Roland Garros.

Heavy overnight rain had taken away the hot temperatures in Paris, but clouds were still present as play began on time at 1000 BST.

However, it was no surprise to see play halted after less then half an hour’s play.

At that stage, women’s seeds Jelena Jankovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova had already taken control of their first-round matches.

Jankovic was 4-1 up on Petra Cetkovska, while Kuznetsova led Claire Feuerstein 5-1.

Men’s fifth seed Juan Martin Del Potro was also up on Michael Llodra, leading 3-1.

Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams are among the players due in action later today.

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Tradition is not quite so prevalent at the French Open as Wimbledon. There is no hard and fast rule that the defending champion begins the Court Philippe Chatrier programme on Day One. However Ana Ivanovic took the opportunity to prove she is worthy of such reverence if the powers that be at Roland Garros ever opt to follow the example of the All England Club.

Certainly the demure Serbian, who took the ladies singles title a year ago after previously reaching the final in 2007, looked the part as she made her bright and breezy early entrance. She waved, she smiled, she smiled a bit more and not even an ugly black bandage on the painful right knee that threatened to thwart the defence of her crown failed to ruin the image.

Unfortunately the Ivanovic game these days is not as pretty as the person who owns it. Since beating Dinara Safina with considerable force to win her first Grand Slam title, things have not exactly gone wonderfully for the lovely Ana. In fact some might say she has suffered the proverbial hangover with injuries, illness and an unsurprising drop in form.

During her pomp in what now seem bygone days, the entire Ivanovic game was built around a powerful serve but throughout her undistinguished 7-6, 6-3 win over Italy’s Sara Errani she was constantly struggling to find any real rhythm with her delivery. A mark of a player who is desperately short of confidence is an inconsistent ball toss and the eighth seed never seemed to throw up the ball to the same height twice in a row.

In fact Ivanovic’s serve was more of a problem to her than to Errani for much of the first set even though there were plenty of unforced errors that should have helped the 22-year-old from Bologna, who reached the third round of January’s Australian Open.

Errani is not exactly enjoying a rich vein of form; she had registered only one win in her previous five tournaments and that was against a qualifier. Ivanovic is a little better than that although the match statistics hardly suggested she is on the way to a third final in a row on Paris clay.

In total, she hit seven double faults and committed 38 unforced errors, more than twice the amount by her opponent. There is much work to do for Craig Kardon, her coach, who maintains Ivanovic’s main problem is tht she is just trying too hard.

Like so many of the game’s leading players Ivanovic is a perfectionist so there is a distinct element of frustration creeping into her mind. She is still only 21 years old so there is plenty of time for her to recapture her position of eminence but the next few months will be crucial.

One thing is certain. Performances like this against opponents who are a little stronger mentally could be disastrous for the defending champion.

Courtesy  The Times.

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Sharapova’s tennis is not yet back to her lofty standards, as one might expect after shoulder surgery in October and four singles matches in the past 10 months. The 64th-ranked Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus is not the sort of opponent who would normally trouble a top-of-her-game Sharapova, yet there was trouble Monday.

Still, a win is a win, and Sharapova’s first match at a major tournament in nearly a year ended with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Yakimova and a spot in the French Open’s second round. It will take more than that performance for Sharapova to erase the uncertainty that comes with such a long layoff.

“This is the first time in my career where I can really say I don’t have any expectations,” the three-time major champion said. “I don’t know how things are going to work out. I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, how my shoulder is going to feel.” She will face fellow Russian Nadia Petrova in her next match. Petrova is just outside the top ten, and will probably be more of a test for Maria than she is ready for, especially on clay. Just a week ago in Warsaw she was beaten quite easily by Alona Bondarenko who is ranked outside of the top thirty.

Because of her time away, Sharapova is ranked 102nd and unseeded at Roland Garros, which might help lower others’ expectations, too. A year ago, after all, she was No. 1.

“If I was a mentally weak person or individual,” Sharapova said, “I think I wouldn’t be here today.”

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While the top players were attracting attention in relatively easy matches, young American player Alexa Glatch, who almost single handedly carried the US Fed Cup team into the final, was showing just how good she can play by making a statement on clay against Italian #1 Flavia Pennetta. She did more than just win, she completely outplayed her opponent 6-1, 6-1. I hope Mary Joe Fernandez, the US Fed Cup captain was watching as Pennetta will be leading Italy against the US in the Cup final.

In other matches, Maria Sharapova came back from a set down to move on to the next round where she will meet Nadia Petrova.

 Venus Williams began another campaign for an elusive Roland Garros title with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

After struggling with her consistency and game plan in the second set, the American veteran stepped inside the court during the final set and took away her compatriot’s timing. While Mattek troubled Williams with hard counterpunching and occasional forays to the net, she is still not

experienced enough to keep up with Williams’s frequent change of tactics.

“I went for my shots. I made too many mistakes, so I lost,” Mattek said.

“Clay, I know is the only Slam Venus hasn’t won,” Mattek said. “I’m sure she’s pretty bent on winning it. I think she was playing good. She clocked a couple of big serves. That’s her strength.”

Top seed Dinara Safina, meanwhile, sent out a major statement that she is prepared to win her first Grand Slam title, destroying Britain’s Anne Keothavong 6 0, 6 0. Displaying no nerves and crushing the balls off both wings, Safina showed Keothavong no mercy, rarely making errors and coolly taking care of short balls.

“After I shook her hand she said at least you could give me one game,” said Safina, who reached the final last year. “I could imagine it’s not nice to feel on the court, but I was just so into myself. I think I was playing with my head like into the match, so I didn’t really focus [on that]. I just was playing point by point, game by game. If you start to play your game, it’s tough to handle you.”

Coming into the tournament, the 23-year-old Safina has won consecutive WTA Premier titles at Rome and Madrid, successes that have made her the Roland Garros favourite. But in her two prior appearances in Slam finals – at Roland Garros 2008 and the 2009 Australian Open – she has come up well short, punched out by Ana Ivanovic and Serena Williams. She is trying not to focus on accolades that analysts are throwing her way.

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Hello everyone,

Back in Paris. Back to play Roland Garros and I was kindly asked to write again this blog. Thank you again for the opportunity you bring me and let me say I have to admit that I was very reluctant to write it again. It is not easy to find words or things to talk about during these – hopefully – two weeks. Because that is the thing, I will be writing this while I stay in Paris playing. That’s why I hope it is two weeks. If on Tuesday night there is no more blog that would mean I have lost my first match, my first round here at Roland Garros.

So I hope what I say is not taken too serious or to not serious. I am someone who doesn’t go too deep to talk about things openly. I can be very open with my team, with my family these weeks, but kind of reserved with the rest of the World. So what I write about is basically about my day, about how’s been, what I’ve done, who did I practice with, what did I eat, what did I do to “kill” those hours that I spend waiting to play my next match or waiting for my next practice… Those things that are part of my work, of my routine, that clearly are not interesting enough to be written by the media in their normal reports. They have to write about a tournament that has 128 man and 128 women that are competing here this week.

So that’s why I write this blog, so that my fans, those who want to know everything about what I do, they can be informed.

So, here I am and tomorrow my first round match. I got here already Wednesday night and I am ready to start the tournament. We’ll see how it goes.

Thanks or muchas gracias.

Rafa

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Andy Murray surprised himself at the ease with which he powered into the second round of the French Open.

Clay-court specialist Juan Ignacio Chela was tipped to give Murray a real examination of his credentials on the dirt in their first-round match but the British number one passed the test with flying colours.

A 6-2 6-2 6-1 victory provided further proof of the progress Murray has made on his least favourite surface in recent months, but he admitted he surpassed even his own lofty expectations.

“If I play that well in matches, I’ve got a good chance of winning comfortably,” the 22-year-old said.

“I wasn’t expecting to play that well and it was a bit surprising.”

Murray was never really tested by Chela, who was once 15th in the world but is not even in the top 200 now after a lengthy injury absence.

It gave the Scot an opportunity to showcase his array of talents in front of an impressed Parisian audience, a couple of superb lobs and drop shots really exciting the crowd.

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The temperature was cooler, and the light fading, by the time France’s Mauresmo delivered her latest disappointing performance at home, a 6-4, 6-3 loss against Anna-Lena Groenefeld in the evening’s final match.

“We couldn’t see,” Mauresmo said.

Hours earlier, Ivanovic got the tournament started on Court Philippe Chatrier, and she looked a bit shaky at the site of her only Grand Slam title.

With pieces of black tape on her troublesome right knee, she wasted 15 break points, fell behind 5-4 in the first set, and only for about a four-game stretch really asserted herself in a 7-6 (3), 6-3 struggle against 44th-ranked Sara Errani of Italy.

Errani, for one, was not impressed.

“Is she going to win the tournament?” Errani said. “Don’t think so.”

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