Ivanovic wards off stubborn Errani

Hewitt dumps Karlovic; Safin enters second round

 

Ivanovic, who dominated at Roland Garros 12 months ago, struggled to a 7-6, 6-3 victory over Sara Errani, who has never won a match at the French Open.  The 21-year-old Serbian stepped on court with her troublesome right knee strapped up in black tape and was pushed from corner to corner by Errani in a 22-shot rally within the opening seconds of the match.

Despite the below-par performance on Sunday, Ivanovic was happy to be back at the claycourt grand slam.

"This morning when I was warming up they were playing highlights (of last year's final) on the big screen. It's always good to see and you get a little bit excited watching that."

Lleyton Hewitt had to duck and dive for almost four hours as he saw 55 aces whizz by him on Sunday but still found a way to trip up lofty Croatian Ivo Karlovic 6-7, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 in his first round match.

Karlovic, 2.08 metres tall and seeded 26th, has enjoyed putting Hewitt in the shade in each of their three previous meetings, most notably in the first round at Wimbledon in 2003 when the Australian was the defending champion.

Hewitt came back from two sets down for the fifth time in his career to cut Karlovic down to size and gain sweet revenge.

The former world number one, ranked 50th after struggling with a hip injury for much of 2008, admitted his heart sank when he saw the draw.  "First thing, obviously, I thought was the loss at Wimbledon (a) few years back in the first round. I felt like I was a little unlucky...to play him on any surface, he's so dangerous." said the 28-year-old.

The Croatian looked poised to hand the Australian his earliest Roland Garros defeat in a decade when he stole the opening two sets on tiebreaks.

Hewitt, never one to give up without a fight, hung on to seal his passage into the last 64 when Karlovic misfired a smash well beyond the baseline.

The former world number one celebrated his moment of triumph by saluting the crowd with a clenched fist.

Despite winning more than eight games on aces alone, Karlovic was four thunderbolt serves shy of equalling the all-time record of American Ed Kauder, who fired 59 in 1955.

Marat Safin made sure there would be at least one more date on his French Open farewell tour when he eased past French wildcard Alexandre Sidorenko 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round on Sunday.

Former world number one Safin, playing at Roland Garros for the last time before retiring at the end of the year, will next face France's Josselin Ouanna.

The 20th seed, who owns two grand slam titles but has never triumphed at the French Open, easily pocketed the first two sets but Sidorenko rebelled in the third. The 21-year-old Frenchman, who has yet to win a singles match on the main tour, went 4-1 up before Safin stepped up a gear. The Russian won the remaining five games and clinched victory on his first match point. He added he did not have any special feelings walking on to the Centre Court for what could have been his last appearance at Roland Garros. "Hopefully it was not the last time. Maybe I have a couple of more matches here.

So it would be great. But I didn't think so deep," he said. Safin was, however, delighted that his chances of facing Frenchman Fabrice Santoro, who will also retire at the end of the year, remain remote since they are in opposite halves of the draw.

"I regret he didn't retire earlier. He is old enough. He should have retired many years ago. He destroyed a couple of tournaments in my life, and thanks to him, I couldn't win some tournaments," he said in a smile. Santoro, who will be playing in his 20th French Open and in a record 67th grand slam tournament, has a 7-2 record against Safin, whom he drove crazy in the third round on the Paris clay in 2001 to win 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 0-6, 6-1. 

Spanish eighth seed Fernando Verdasco compounded a miserable day for the French when he humbled Florent Serra 6-2, 6-1, 6-4.

Chinese 25th seed Li Na became the first player to reach the second round after overwhelming Poland's Marta Domachowska 6-4, 6-2.


First-round results on Sunday (prefix denotes seeding):

Men’s singles: 8-Fernando Verdasco (Spa) bt Florent Serra (Fra) 6-2, 6-1, 6-4; 31-Nicolas Almagro (Spa) bt  Agustin Calleri (Arg) 6-4, 6-1, 6-3; 13-Marin Cilic (Cro) bt Jan Hernych (Cze) 6-0, 6-4, 6-3; 20-Marat Safin (Rus) bt Alexandre Sidorenko (Fra) 6-4, 6-4, 6-4; Lleyton Hewitt (Aus) bt 26-Ivo Karlovic (Cro) 6-7 (1-7), 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 6-3;  Dudi Sela (Isr) bt Jean-Rene Lisnard (Mon) 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; Mathieu Montcourt (Fra) bt Lu Yen-Hsun (Tai) 6-2 (retd); Andrey Golubev (Kaz) bt Denis Gremelmayr (Ger) 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.
Women’s singles: Julie Coin (Fra) bt Nuria Llagostera Vives (Spa) 7-5, 6-2; Vitalia Diatchenko (Rus) bt Mathilde Johansson (Fra) 2-6, 6-2, 10-8; 8-Ana Ivanovic (Ser) bt Sara Errani (Ita) 7-6 (7-3), 6-3; Timea Bacsinszky (Sui) bt Emilie Loit (Fra) 4-6, 6-4, 6-1; 27-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus) bt Raluca Olaru (Rom) 6-3, 6-2; 25-Li Na (Chn) bt Marta Domachowska (Pol) 6-4, 6-2.