Kuznetsova eases into second round despite fightback

Published on 28/05/2012 02:59

Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2009 French Open champion and 26th seed this year, enjoyed a straight-sets win in the first round at Roland Garros but had to dig in after a fightback by Croatian underdog Mirjana Lucic.

The Russian strolled through the first set 6-1 but was pegged back to 3-3 in the second before riding out the wobble to win 6-1 6-3.

“I had been playing pretty well, pretty focused,” she said. “Just at some stage the match turned around a little bit. One, two points turned everything away, and then I had to fight back at 3-3 to make it 6-3.”

Angelique Kerber – whose run to the semi-finals at Rome, on the back of a title win in Copenhagen, helped her secure a top-ten seeding – continued her good form with a 6-3 6-4 win over China’s Shuai Zhang.

But she insisted it was not an easy match. “It’s every time hard to play first round in a grand slam,” she said. “She was playing very good, especially the second set was very close and a little bit tight for both of us. But I’m very happy to manage this and be in the second round.”

Italian 21st seed Sara Errani started slowly against Casey Dellacqua, dropping the first set to the Australian, but came back to win 4-6 6-2 6-2.

Lucie Safarova, seeded 20th, had less trouble seeing off Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus, winning 6-2 6-0.

Spain’s Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez battled all the way to beat Czech Eva Birnerova 4-6 6-4 8-6, while American Melanie Oudin beat Sweden’s Johanna Larsson 6-3 6-3.