• French Open, Day One

Venus and Kuznetsova power into second round in Paris

Svetlana Kuznetsova was relieved to get through her first round match © Getty Images

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Day One in pictures
Men's round-up: Day One

Venus Williams showed no signs of the struggles that have plagued her recent French Open campaigns as she shrugged off the first-round challenge of Patty Schnyder to win 6-3 6-3.

The world No. 2, who has been knocked out at the third-round stage in each of the last three years, was in ruthless mood as she frequently disrupted the Schnyder serve.

She would claim four breaks in the first set, although the ease at which Schnyder claimed two of her own will be the source of some dismay. Williams was accurate with just eight of her 19 first attempts in the opening stanza as she struggled for any rhythm behind her first serve.

Her service game clicked into gear in the second set, while her shots from the baseline - which were characteristically venomous throughout - made the difference between the players.

Williams, who will next take on Arantxa Parra Santonja or Kurumi Nara, has now emerged as the victor on each of the 11 occasions that she has faced off against Schnyder.

Defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova had won only one match on clay this season going into her first-round contest, and at 3-0 down against Sorana Cirstea it looked like she was set for an embarrassing exit. She fought back, however, to win 12 of the next 13 games and complete a 6-3 6-1 triumph.

Last year's quarter-finalist Cirstea was rampant in the early games against an opponent clearly struggling to find her rhythm. Kuznetsova showed her mental resilience to weather the early setbacks, before eventually playing her way back into something approaching her best form - in the process severing a run of two successive first-round exits at tournaments.

"[My poor form] was surprising for me, because I felt I had been preparing and giving my best in practice, and I was not having as good results as I would have liked," Kuznetsova, who faces Andrea Petkovic next, said. "But I knew this moment had to pass because I deserve better than that, and I worked harder than these results. I was just concerned about when it was going to pass."

Gisela Dulko claimed a shock win © Getty Images

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Tenth seed Victoria Azarenka saw her dismal clay season continue as she was totally outclassed by Gisela Dulko, who moves on to face Chanelle Scheepers. Azarenka, a quarter-finalist last year, has now lost six of ten matches on clay in 2010 - and her lack of confidence was glaringly obvious during the 6-1 6-2 capitulation.

Home favourite Aravane Rezai needed just 48 minutes to reach the second round as she cruised past Heidi El Tabakh 6-1 6-1. It was a totally dominant showing from Rezai, who sent down 21 winners, as she continued the high standard of performance that saw her claim the Madrid Open earlier this month. The No. 15 seed will hope for more of the same in her next match against Anna Chakvetadze or Angelique Kerber.

There was a shock exit for clay-court specialist Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, who came into the tournament having triumphed earlier this month at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, as she was dumped out by the powerful world No. 98 Akgul Amanmuradova - who goes on to play Johanna Larsson.

Elsewhere in the first round, there were wins for Dominika Cibulkova, Varvara Lepchenko and Yvonne Meusburger.

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