VENUS, HARKLEROAD ADVANCE
By Greg Garber, ESPN.com
PARIS -- You never quite know what you're going to get with the Williams sisters, but on Monday Venus did something relatively rare these days.
She won a match.
With younger sister Serena sitting out with a chronically sore knee, No. 11-seeded Venus won only her seventh match of the year, a sound 6-4, 6-3 result over Austria's Sybille Bammer on wind-blown, rain-dampened Court Suzanne Lenglen.
Troubled by arm, elbow and wrist injuries, Williams lost in the first round of the Australian Open and then missed the next three months recuperating. Her brief activity on clay has produced mixed results. Venus defeated Martina Hingis in the second round at Warsaw but lost in the quarterfinals to Svetlana Kuznetsova. In Rome, she reached the semifinals, only to lose a rematch with Hingis.
AP PhotoDespite being the 11th seed, Venus Williams will be a tough out if she can reach the second week.
Williams is ranked No. 13 on the WTA Tour, not where a former No. 1 player wants to be.
"Seeing your ranking going down, down, down -- it was unavoidable," she said. "I don't like to see myself floating randomly outside the top 10. It's not where I belong.
"I'm extremely motivated to always get my ranking back up," she said.
Williams played aggressively, winning 19 of 25 points at net, and seemed uncharacteristically bouncy.
"I shouldn't be fatigued," she said. "I should be pretty fresh compared to some other players."
Point taken.
Williams and Ashley Harkleroad, the 26-year-old from Wesley Chapel, Fla., were two of the six American women in action on Monday. Like Williams, Harkleroad emerged a winner. She defeated Jelena Kostanic 7-5, 2-6, 7-5.
Harkleroad's best Grand Slam performance in 10 previous tries was the third round of the 2003 French Open.
Amy Frazier, Laura Granville, Vania King and Bethanie Mattek weren't so lucky. They were all first-round losers on Monday.
DAY 3 PREVIEW
The first round concludes Tuesday, highlighted by American Andy Roddick facing Alberto Martin. This will be the first true test for Roddick since he injured his left ankle last week. Roddick is 4-0 all-time vs. Martin, including a win earlier this season at the Nasdaq-100 Open.
While Roddick is the only American on the men's side playing Tuesday, four American women -- all on the bottom half of the draw -- play on the final day of the first round.
Jill Craybas faces Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus. If Craybas wins, she will likely get the defending champion, Justine Henin-Hardenne, in the second round. Jamea Jackson faces Zi Yan of China; Shenay Perry plays Yuliana Fedak of the Ukraine; and Lisa Raymond faces 12th-seeded Martina Hingis. Raymond is 1-6 against Hingis, with her only win coming in Zurich back in 1997. Raymond and Hingis will be the first match on Court Philippe Chatrier (5 a.m. ET).
The only seed on the men's side to lose so far has been No. 16 Jarkko Nieminen, and that was by retirement. He pulled out with a stomach upset. No. 17 Robby Ginepri trailed Albert Montanes two sets to one and 3-0 in the fourth set before his match Monday was suspended.
Two seeds on the women's side lost Monday: No. 18 Elena Likhovtseva won just two games in losing to Karolina Sprem, and No. 28 Lucie Safarova fell to Anda Perianu, also in straight sets.