Serena Williams, Jelena Jankovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova dodged rain showers on Tuesday to glide into the second round of the French Open. American second seed Serena breezed past Czech Republic’s Klara Zakopalova 6-3, 6-4. Twenty four hours after the scorching conditions in Paris had left many players hot and bothered, temperatures had dipped by more than 15 degrees Celsius after overnight thunderstorms.
Jankovic did not had to sweat much and seemed relieved when she could get back into the warmth of the locker room with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Czech Petra Cetkovska.
“I felt a little bit slow after the rain delay when i came back on court again. But i managed to finish the job in two sets, so i am happy,” said the fifth seed, a semifinalist in Paris in 2008. Like Janakovic, Russian Kuznetsova also had to endure a two-hour rain break during the first set but she made sure she did not slip up on resumption and bamboozled French wildcard Claire Feuerstein 6-1, 6-4.