Tennis

Serena Williams rallies to advance at French Open

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-05-28 08:44

American Serena Williams fought from one set down to win a rain-interrupted match 2-1 over Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria at the French Open which saw much of Sunday's schedule were delayed until next day.

Former world number one Marat Safin of Russia was the only one who finished the match on Sunday before the rain got heavier and delayed the play for hours, dismissing Spaniard Fernando Vicente in his first round tie on Philippe Chatrier Court.

The 20-year-old Pironkova had an early break in the opening set to go up 2-0, but Williams fought back to level it at 2-2. A rampant Pironkova then reeled off three straight games with two more breaks jumping to a 5-2 edge. While Serena had to serve to save the set at 5-6, the rain halted play.

The match resumed five hours later and the long break didn't seem to help Williams out when eighth seed lost the first set due to a string of unforced errors 7-5.

However, Williams had finally found her stride in the second set storming to 6-1 in only 30 minutes, and after that she was never troubled again.

Defending champion Justine Henin of Belgium opened her bid for a third straight Roland Garros title with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Elena Vesnina from Russia.

The 24-year-old converted five of nine breaking points to take the match in one hour and 29 minutes.

Elsewhere, 10th seeded Dinara Safina of Russia fought off a strong comeback from Yuliana Fedak of Ukraine to win at 7-5, 6-4 while Austria's Tamira Paszek made light work of Japanese Aiko Nakamura 6-4, 6-0.

On men's part, Potito Starace from Italy rallied to beat Ivo Minar from the Czech Republic 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (5) and in a Serbian derby, Janko Tipsarevic outlasted Dusan Vemic 7-6(3), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to set up a second round tie against Safin.

Safin, seeded 22nd, did not seem to fire on all cylinders to cruise through Vicente 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 in one hour and 24 minutes on a cool and windy day.

The two-time Grand Slam champion made 30 unforced errors to 20 from Vicente but only dropped fourteen points on his serve throughout the match. Safin fired eight aces against 2 of his Spanish opponent.

"Of course it was a little bit difficult to play the first match, I feel nervous so it's not physical to do something very good because you want to win," said the former U.S. Open and Australian Open winner.

"It is tough to play with this weather because it's raining and windy, and then the conditions are rough and everything depends on the weather.

"I was lucky to finish it straight away, anybody don't want to wait hours or maybe even tomorrow."