Venus Williams opens French Open with straight-set win

PARIS — Venus Williams beat Patty Schnyder for the second time this month on clay, opening Sunday at the French Open with a 6- 3, 6-3 win, as holder Svetlana Kuznetsova pulled her clay game together to advance.

Williams, newly promoted back to second in the world, followed up her defeat of the veteran Swiss early this month in Rome. The American player overcame 21 unforced errors, breaking six times to make the difference.

Kuznetsova steadied after losing the first three games to emerge with a face-saving first-round win, defeating Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-3, 6-1.

The Russian sixth seed came to the court with just one clay victory this season from a sparse four matches.

The seed advanced on her second match point against No. 34 Cirstea, a quarter-finalist a year ago. She will next play German Andrea Petkovic, a winner over Russian Elena Vesnina 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

"Definitely I was a little bit nervous in the start, and it was rough start for me, but I'm very happy about it," said the relieved Russian.

"I managed to come back and fight for every single game. It didn't matter if I was down 0-40 or 15-40, whatever was it. I was just playing as many balls back as I could. The first two matches are very important, so the second match is gonna be very hard mentally."

Argentina Gisela Dulko scored the first upset of the fortnight, upsetting out-of-sorts 10th seed Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 6-2.

The Belarus player had had mixed results on clay, following up a quarter-final in April in Spain with sluggish showings and never getting past a second round. Her loss to Dulko was her third in a row.

Italian 14th seed Flavia Pennetta handed Britain a loss as she beat Anne Keothavong 6-2, 6-2; France's Aravane Rezai didn't pause for breath after last weekend's surprise Madrid title over Venus

Williams, hammering Canadian qualifier Heidi el-Tabakh 6-1, 6-1.

Men's 2009 finalist Robin Soderling won the first nine games in a rout of local player Laurent Recouderc 6-0, 6-2, 6-3.

A year after stunning Rafael Nadal in the fourth round as the Spaniard lost on the Paris clay for the first time after four successive titles, Soderling came good in his first match at Roland

Garros since losing the final to Roger Federer.

The fifth seed snapped up the first set in 20 minutes against the number 178, finishing with 46 winners and nine aces.

"It's always nice to have a quick match in the early rounds," said the Swede.

"I got to hit a few balls. We had a few rallies, so it was a good match. I'm feeling pretty good, and now I feel healthy. I'm really ready to play many matches here."

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the eighth seed, kept home hopes boyant on opening day as he fought past German Daniel Brands 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (2-7), 7-5.

Croatian 10th seed Marin Cilic was tested by Brazilian Ricardo Mello before posting a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 win, while Russian 11th seed Mikhail Youzhny crushed Pole Michal Przysiezny 6-1, 6-0, 6-4.

Latvian Ernests Gulbis, who beat Roger Federer in Rome, fell victim to a hamstring injury and had to quit against Julien Benneteau to hand over a 6-4, 6-2, 1-0 win.

———

(c) 2010, Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany).