Mon May 26 14:52:53 2008

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Jankovic, Venus advance on wet Day 2 at French Open

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Paris, France (Sports Network) - Third-seeded Serbian star Jelena Jankovic and former runner-up Venus Williams were a pair of first-round winners at the French Open, where no less than 18 women's matches were either suspended or postponed because of rain on Monday.

The 2007 semifinalist Jankovic held off Romanian lucky-loser Monica Niculescu 7-6 (7-3), 6-2, while the eighth-seeded Williams outlasted 35-year-old Israeli Tzipora Obziler 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 on the famed red clay at Stade Roland Garros. Jankovic, who is among the tournament favorites here, was a clay-court titlist in Rome earlier this month.

Williams blew a 4-1 lead in the second set against Obziler, who wound up winning five straight games to claim the stanza. The Israeli then broke Williams' serve to open the third set, but the American responded with a break of her own and then broke again for a 3-1 advantage before holding on for the hard-fought win.

The six-time major titlist Williams is the reigning Wimbledon champ and lost to her younger sister Serena in the 2002 French Open finale. Serena is the only former champion in this year's women's draw.

In other action involving top-16 seeds, No. 10 Swiss Patty Schnyder shut down Russian Ekaterina Bychkova 6-3, 6-4 and No. 12 Hungarian Agnes Szavay held off Japan's Ayumi Morita 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. Szavay fought back from 0-3 down in the third set to sneak past a game Morita.

Czech Petra Cetkovska erased 23rd-seeded Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko 6-3, 6-0, while 32nd-seeded Italian Karin Knapp handled German Martina Muller 6-0, 6-4.

Additional opening-round wins came for Russian qualifier Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Croatian qualifier Jelena Pandzic, Argentine Gisela Dulko, France's Emilie Loit, and Swiss Timea Bacsinszky.

Fourteenth-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska, fresh off her clay-court title in Istanbul last week, was leading Ukrainian Mariya Koryttseva 5-4 when played was called for the day.

Several seeds were washed out on Day 2, including No. 6 Russian Anna Chakvetadze, No. 9 Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli and No. 22 French star Amelie Mauresmo. Chakvetadze will meet Spaniard Nuria Llagostera Vives on Tuesday, while the 2007 Wimbledon runner-up Bartoli will encounter Aussie Casey Dellacqua and the former world No. 1 and two-time Grand Slam champion Mauresmo will take on Ukrainian Olga Savchuk.

Also on Tuesday, top-seeded Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova will open her stay here against fellow Russian Evgeniya Rodina, while fourth-seeded U.S. Open runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova will battle Japan's Aiko Nakamura and seventh-seeded two-time major finalist Elena Dementieva will square off against fellow Russian Vera Dushevina.

The 2008 French Open champ will pocket more than $1.5 million.