<p>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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />Despite the ruthless performance, Safina's coach Zeljko Krajan is proving to be a hard man to please. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />A combination of guile and deft shot-making allowed the Briton to save two set points as he dug himself out of a hole. <br /><br />That performance held no fear for Murray's next opponent, bearded Serb Janko Tipsarevic. <br /><br />The words "fear", "terror" or "panic" do not feature in Sharapova's dictionary and on Wednesday she again showed why. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />Sharapova beat an opponent ranked 91 places above her despite winning one point less than Petrova's total of 94. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />Ruthless Nadal<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Lone Asian<br /><br />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. <br /><br />Sania-Chuang advance<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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).<br /><br />French Open results on Wednesday<br /><br />Second-round results (prefix denotes seeding):<br /><br />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.<br />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.</p>
<p>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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />Despite the ruthless performance, Safina's coach Zeljko Krajan is proving to be a hard man to please. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />A combination of guile and deft shot-making allowed the Briton to save two set points as he dug himself out of a hole. <br /><br />That performance held no fear for Murray's next opponent, bearded Serb Janko Tipsarevic. <br /><br />The words "fear", "terror" or "panic" do not feature in Sharapova's dictionary and on Wednesday she again showed why. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />Sharapova beat an opponent ranked 91 places above her despite winning one point less than Petrova's total of 94. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />Ruthless Nadal<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Lone Asian<br /><br />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. <br /><br />Sania-Chuang advance<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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).<br /><br />French Open results on Wednesday<br /><br />Second-round results (prefix denotes seeding):<br /><br />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.<br />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.</p>