May 28, 2008 - High winds and a grand slam debutante almost blew out the top women’s seed, Maria Sharapova. Sharapova struggled with her serve at the French Open, hitting 17 double-faults and barely managing to defeat 103rd-ranked Evgeniya Rodina 6-1, 3-6, 8-6 Wednesday in the first round.
Sharapova landed only 64 percent of her first serves in the match on center court, where she is trying to complete a career Grand Slam at the clay-court major. Her 19-year-old opponent came within two points of winning at 5-4 in the third set, but Sharapova won the next two with strong serves to hold. At 6-6, Sharapova regained control by breaking serve for the first time in the final set, returning a second serve with a big forehand that caught Rodina flat-footed.
Then, serving for the match, Sharapova double-faulted one final time, but took the next three points to end it. Rodina was playing in her first Grand Slam tournament. She lost in the first qualifying round at the Australian Open this year.
Rain delays over the first three days of the tournament gave way to strong wind on Day 4, when organizers hoped to cut through a huge backlog of matches.
In other early round matches, fifth-seeded Serena Williams, the only former champion in the women’s field, won the final four games to defeat Mathilde Johansson of France 6-2, 7-5 and advance to the third round. Second-seeded Ana Ivanovic had a convincing win to also advance to the third round. Last year’s French Open finalist easily beat Lucie Safarova 6-1, 6-2. Fresh off her victory in Rome, third seed Jelena Jankovic took a while to find her form, but managed to push through Romania’s Monica Niculescu 7-6, 6-2. Also struggling, 2002 finalist and No 8 seed Venus Williams had to sweat profusely in a 6-3 4-6 6-2 victory over Israel’s Tzipora Obziler.
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