JOIN USMurray overcomes Starace
The duo has never felt at home in the heartland of claycourt tennis and after Murray was forced to change tactics to tame Italian Potito Starace 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, Sharapova maintained an aura of calm despite being five points from defeat to subdue 11th-seeded fellow Russian Nadia Petrova 6-2, 1-6, 8-6.
World number one Dinara Safina followed up her 6-0, 6-0 walloping of Britain's Anne Keothavong in the first round with a 6-1, 6-1 demolition of luckless fellow Russian Vitalia Diatchenko and holder Ana Ivanovic discovered her sweet spot to crush Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-1, 6-2.
Despite the ruthless performance, Safina's coach Zeljko Krajan is proving to be a hard man to please.
Like Safina, Murray is also chasing a maiden Grand Slam title but the third seed's hopes of equalling his best performance in Paris blew hot and cold on a chilly day on Philippe Chatrier Court.
After losing the second set, Murray ran around aimlessly chasing shadows and looked in danger of going two-sets-to-one down to a player ranked 101 places below him as Starace streaked 5-1 ahead.
A combination of guile and deft shot-making allowed the Briton to save two set points as he dug himself out of a hole.
That performance held no fear for Murray's next opponent, bearded Serb Janko Tipsarevic.
The words "fear", "terror" or "panic" do not feature in Sharapova's dictionary and on Wednesday she again showed why.
On a comeback trail following a nine-month layoff because of a career-threatening shoulder injury, she hung tough for two hours 12 minutes before forcing Petrova to smack a forehand wide on match point.
Sharapova beat an opponent ranked 91 places above her despite winning one point less than Petrova's total of 94.
For Fabrice Santoro, however, there was no great escape. The sentimental French favourite took just eight minutes to perform his final vanishing act on Wednesday.
Santoro's 20th and final Roland Garros singles appearance ended in an emotional 6-3, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 first round defeat by Belgium's Christophe Rochus.
The match had been suspended on Tuesday due to bad light at 5-3 to Rochus in the fourth set but upon resumption, Santoro quickly ran out of tricks and bowed out after just two games.
French seventh seed Gilles Simon gave home fans something to cheer about as he overwhelmed American Robert Kendrick 7-5, 6-0, 6-1 to reach the third round, while Spanish eighth seed Fernando Verdasco beat Germany's Philipp Petzschner 6-1, 6-2, 6-3.
Ruthless Nadal
World number one Rafael Nadal continued his bid for a fifth consecutive French title with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 crushing of Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili in the second round.
The Spaniard, unbeaten at Roland Garros since his debut in 2005, needed two hours 17 minutes to down the world number 72 and set up a third-round meeting with either Kazakh Andrey Golubev or former world number one Lleyton Hewitt of Australia.
Lone Asian
China's Li Na was the only Asian representative left in the either singles draw after the fourth day. The 25th seed made it through to the third round after beating Swiss Timea Bacsinsky 6-1, 6-4.
Sania-Chuang advance
India’s Sania Mirza and Chia-Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei sailed into the doubles second round with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Ipek Senoglu of Turkey and Yanina Wickmayer of Belarus.
Doubles ace Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy moved into the men’s second round with an easy 6-1, 6-3 win over French pair of Sebastien De Chaunac and Benoit Paire.
However, Rohan Bopanna and Jonathan Elrich of Israel, however, lost a tough first-round encounter to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain and Sergio Roitman of Argentina 4-6, 6-7 (10-12).
French Open results on Wednesday
Second-round results (prefix denotes seeding):
Men’s singles: 14-David Ferrer (ESP) bt Nicolas Kiefer (Ger) 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2; 1-Rafael Nadal (ESP) bt Teimuraz Gabashvili (Rus) 6-1, 6-4, 6-2; 18-Radek Stepanek (Czech) bt Mathieu Montcourt (Fra) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4; 17-Stanislas Wawrinka (Sui) bt Nicolas Massu (Chi) 6-1, 6-1, 6-2; Janko Tipsarevic (Serb) bt 28-Feliciano Lopez (Spa) 6-7(9), 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-3; 8-Fernando Verdasco (Spa) bt Philipp Petzschner (Ger) 6-1, 6-2, 6-3; 7-Gilles Simon (Fra) bt Robert Kendrick (US) 7-5, 6-0, 6-1; 13-Marin Cilic (Cro) bt Dudi Sela (Isr) 6-0, 6-3, 6-1; 30-Victor Hanescu (Rom) bt Mikhail Youzhny (Rus) 7-5, 7-5, 7-5; 31-Nicolas Almagro (Spa) bt Ernests Gulbis (Lat) 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, 6-2; 3-Andy Murray (Bri) bt Potito Starace (Ita) 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4; 12-Fernando Gonzalez (Chi) bt Rui Machado (Por) 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. First round: Arnaud Clement (Fra) bt 21-Dmitry Tursunov (Rus) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Women’s singles: Olga Govortsova (Blr) bt Akgul Amanmuradova (Uzb) 6-3 6-7(3) 7-5; Maria Sharapova (Rus) bt 11-Nadia Petrova (Rus) 6-2, 1-6, 8-6; 20-Dominika Cibulkova (Slo) bt Kirsten Flipkens (Bel) 6-1, 6-0; 8-Ana Ivanovic (Serb) bt Tamarine Tanasugarn (Thai) 6-1, 6-2; 32-Iveta Benesova (Cze) bt Alla Kudryavtseva (Rus) 6-1, 6-2. 22-Carla Suarez Navarro (Spa) bt Lucie Hradecka (Cze) 6-2, 6-4; 29-Agnes Szavay (Hun) bt Elena Vesnina (Rus) 6-2, 6-0; 9-Victoria Azarenka (Bela) bt Kristina Barrois (Ger) 7-6 (7-1), 7-5; 25-Li Na (Chn) bt Timea Bacsinszky (Sui) 6-1, 6-4; 1-Dinara Safina (Rus) bt Vitalia Diatchenko (Rus) 6-1, 6-1.