May 28, 2007	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 11, 1428

PARIS, May 27: Triple champion Justine Henin and Serena Williams, the 2002 winner, reached the French Open second round on Sunday as Roland Garros shivered in rain and biting cold.

In an opening day programme decimated by a six-hour rain delay, Belgian top seed Henin, bidding for a third successive title here and fourth in all, saw off Russian 20-year-old Elena Vesnina 6-4, 6-3.

Henin wrapped up victory in 89 minutes and will face Austria's Tamira Paszek for a place in the third round.

Williams, reinvigorated by her surprise Australian Open triumph in January, which gave the American her eighth career Grand Slam title, had a much tougher time in her first round clash.

The eighth seed won 12 of the last 13 games as she was forced to battle back from a set down to beat Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 and book a match-up with either Virginie Razzano of France or Milagros Sequera of Venezuela.

Williams struggled in the opening set on the Suzanne Lenglen court in cold, damp conditions.

She fought off set points in the seventh and ninth games and was more than happy to walk off court for the marathon rain suspension.

However, Pironkova, playing in only her third match at Roland Garros, kept her nerve when the players returned to serve out a love game to take the set 7-5.

The slender 19-year-old Bulgarian then broke to lead 1-0 in the second set before Williams turned up the heat to clinch nine games in a row on her way to grabbing the second set and nipping 3-0 ahead in the decider.

Twenty-four matches had been scheduled for the opening day of the 2007 championship, but with torrential rain falling for most of Sunday, organisers were forced to cancel 17 matches of the planned programme.

Former world No 1 Marat Safin of Russia eased past Spanish qualifier Fernando Vicente 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 in just 84 minutes to ensure his second round spot before the rains arrived.

Safin, the 22nd seed and a semi-finalist in 2002, will face Janko Tipsarevic, who beat fellow Serb Dusan Vemic in four sets, for a place in the third round.

“They were very tough conditions, it was raining and it was very windy,” said Safin who refuses to write off his chances of winning a French Open title despite the likely domination of the tournament by defending champion Rafael Nadal and current world No 1 Roger Federer.

“This is still my favourite surface. The courts here are great, the bounce is good. It's my place. If I can get through a few rounds I can be dangerous.”

The former US and Australian Open winner has endured a mediocre season so far with a best performance of a semi-final run at the Las Vegas event in March where he lost to Lleyton Hewitt.

It was also the last time the unpredictable Russian managed to win consecutive matches at the same tournament.

“My form wasn't even up and down, it was just downhill,” said Safin.

On Sunday, the 27-year-old, who had lost to Vicente in St Petersburg in 2003 in their only previous encounter, was never in trouble unleashing his big, double-fisted backhand to devastating effect.

Once he had enjoyed three comfortable breaks in the first set, which was wrapped up in only 25 minutes, Safin was cruising with the result leaving Vicente still searching for his win on the tour since June last year.

Sunday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Men’s singles:

First round: 22-Marat Safin (Russia) beat Fernando Vicente (Spain) 6-1, 6-3, 6-1; Potito Starace (Italy) beat Ivo Minar (Czech Republic) 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5); Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia) beat Dusan Vemic (Serbia) 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

Women’s singles:

First round: 1-Justine Henin (Belgium) beat Elena Vesnina (Russia) 6-4, 6-3; 8-Serena Williams (US) beat Tsvetana Pironkova (Bulgaria) 5-7, 6-1, 6-1;

Tamira Paszek (Austria) beat Aiko Nakamura (Japan) 6-4, 6-0; 10-Dinara Safina (Russia) beat Yuliana Fedak (Ukraine) 7-5, 6-4.—Agencies