By Julien Pretot
PARIS, June 1 - Defending champion Justine
Henin-Hardenne saved three set points before beating unheralded
Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus 6-2 7-5 to reach the third round
of the French Open on Thursday.
The Belgian, who also won the tournament in 2003 and was
celebrating her 24th birthday, looked unusually nervous on the
centre court and made 22 unforced errors in the opening set as
light rain fell.
Playing far from her best, Henin struggled with her first
serve and was broken in the third game on a double fault.
Baseliner Yakimova, who should have posed no threat to the
former world number one, was content with keeping the ball in
play, waiting for her opponent to falter.
"I was not in a mood to give a present on my 24th birthday,"
said Henin.
"It was tough, the conditions were really bad. I was
struggling to remain aggressive. Sometimes I was in bad
positions," she added.
"Fortunately, it's in these moments that I hit my best
shots."
The same pattern was repeated in the second set, with the
Belarussian sensing Henin's nerves and trying to force a
decider.
She broke for the fourth time of the match to open a 5-4
lead, only for Henin to save three set points, the last one with
a fine drop shot.
The Belgian then steeled her nerves to wrap the contest on
her first match point after one hour and 39 minutes.
She will meet either France's Alize Cornet or Italian
Tathiana Garbin in the next round.