Mauresmo battles through to French Open second round
Mauresmo struggled past Savchuk to reach the second round
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Tuesday, 27, May 2008 10:08
Home favourite Amelie Mauresmo has qualified for the second round of the French Open after taking two-and-a-half hours to beat Olga Savchuk.
Mauresmo has always struggled with the pressure of trying to win her home tournament and showed signs of nerves once again during a rain-affected match.
The former Wimbledon champion eventually won 7-5 4-6 6-1 but was made to work hard by her Ukrainian opponent during the first two sets of the match.
Savchuk broke Mauresmo in the opening game of the match and the two players traded breaks at regular intervals before Mauresmo finally held serve to take the set at the second attempt.
Mauresmo fell behind again at the start of the second set but fought back to 2-2 before rain forced a lengthy delay.
When the players came back on court it was Savchuk who looked sharpest and she was able to break Mauresmo again before securing the set on her fourth break point.
But Mauresmo, who made 44 unforced errors during the match, managed to gather herself for one last salvo and dominated the final set to progress into the second round.
Elsewhere, fourth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova made light work of Japan's Aiko Nakamura winning 6-2 6-3 in under 90 minutes.
Fellow Russian Dinara Safina looked equally good as she cruised past Kateryna Bondarenko 6-1 6-3.
Top seed Maria Sharapova was frustrated by the rain on day three of thre tournament and will have to wait until Wednesday to face Evgeniya Rodina in her first round match.