DEFENDING WOMEN’S champion Francesca Schiavone wasted little time in reaching round two of this year’s French Open with a thumping 6-2, 6-0 victory over American teenager Melanie Oudin.
The elegant Italian, whose win against Samantha Stosur in the final 12 months ago was arguably the high point of a patchy season in women’s tennis, needed only an hour and two minutes to confirm she will again be a big threat on the red clay.
Oudin was tipped as the next big star of American tennis when she burst onto the scene in 2009, reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon and the quarter-finals at the US Open, but she has failed to build on that.
The 19-year-old, who prefers hard courts, has won only seven of her 24 matches this season and simply could not cope with Schiavone’s intelligent placement and variety of spins and slices.
The fifth seed admitted to nerves on her return to Court Philippe Chatrier, saying: “I’m still shaking a little bit. I felt really happy to be there. The court is perfect. It is like when you go home and your mum does everything for you and you feel comfortable. I felt like that but with a lot of adrenaline.”
Oudin conceded she had been demonstrably second best, saying: “I pretty much got a clay-court lesson today. She is serving well, she’s moving well, she pretty much doesn’t have a weakness on the clay. I can see how she won the French Open last year.”
Schiavone next faces Russia’s Vesna Dolonts, who edged a three-hour-and-21-minute epic against Anne Keothavong 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 on Court 16.
Third-seed Vera Zvonareva eased past Lourdes Dominguez Lino, winning 6-3, 6-3, while on Court 14 Sara Errani staged a tremendous comeback. The Italian trailed 18-year-old American Christina McHale 5-0 in the final set before battling back to triumph 6-7 (4/7), 6-2, 9-7.
There were also wins for seeds Daniela Hantuchova and Roberta Vinci but 26th seed Nadia Petrova lost to Anastasia Rodionova and 31st seed Klara Zakopalova was dumped out by Chan Yung-jan.
Indian Sania Mirza reached the second round for the first time since 2007 with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Kristina Barrois but home hope Aravane Rezai was beaten by Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu.
