Robin Soderling, last year’s runner-up, took just 71 minutes and surrendered a meager two games as he swept aside hapless American Taylor Dent yesterday to reach the French Open last 32.
Rain delayed a number of games, including doubles matches featuring Taiwanese Chuang Chia-jung, Chan Yung-jan, and Hsieh Su-wei.
Soderling, the Swedish fifth seed who famously handed Rafael Nadal a first career defeat at the French Open last year, beat Dent 6-0, 6-1, 6-1 and will next face Spain’s Albert Montanes.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“I didn’t expect to win so easily in the second round of a Grand Slam. I can’t remember playing such a short match,” said the 25-year-old Swede, who lost just five games in his opening round. “But you have to keep your focus because a match can change very quickly.”
The 29-year-old Dent was humiliated on Court Suzanne Lenglen, never recovering from winning just seven points in the first set, which also saw his service broken three times.
After winning a paltry two games in all, the American, playing in Paris for the first time since 2004, was finally put out of his misery after an hour and 11 minutes.
That was 25 minutes less than it took world No. 2 Venus Williams to make the last 32 with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Spain’s Arantxa Parra Santonja.
Williams, the runner-up here to sister Serena in 2002, next plays Slovakian 26th seed Dominika Cibulkova, who made the semi-finals last year after putting out Maria Sharapova on the way.
“She played very well here last year,” Williams said. “But I will just try to execute my game plan and not worry a ton about what my opponent is doing.”
Venus has taken to the court at the French Open this week sporting a racy black dress with red trim and skin-colored underwear.
Williams insists that she doesn’t take to the court intending to titillate male spectators and says her outfits only generate attention due to the assets nature gave her.
Asked if her aim was to excite the imagination of male fans, she replied: “That was never the objective.”
“The design has nothing to do with the rear. It just so happens that I have a very well developed one! It’s all genetic. If you look at mom and dad, you’ll see the same thing happening. If you look at my sister [Serena], you’ll see the same thing,” she said.
Meanwhile, men’s eighth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was also in a hurry, taking just 89 minutes to clinch a 6-0, 6-1, 6-4 win over French compatriot and childhood friend Josselin Ouanna.
Tsonga, the world No. 10, will face either Spanish number 32 seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez or Dutchman Thiemo De Bakker in the next round.
Also progressing to the third round were Croatian 11th seed Marin Cilic, who defeated Spain’s Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2, and Serbian Viktor Troicki, who saw off Australian wildcard Carsten Ball 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
Two-time semi-finalist Nadia Petrova of Russia, the 19th seed, breezed past Hungary’s 2005 Roland Garros junior champion Agnes Szavay 6-1, 6-2.
The 27-year-old Petrova will next take on either French 15th seed Aravane Rezai, the champion in Madrid two weeks ago, or Germany’s Angelique Kerber.
Earlier, Andy Roddick beat Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 6-2, 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 in the French Open’s first round.
Roddick and Mardy Fish are among five US men into the second round, equaling the largest contingent at this Grand Slam tournament since six made it in 1998. Robby Ginepri knocked off 18th-seeded Sam Querrey 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-2 in an all-US match on Tuesday, while John Isner and Taylor Dent won on Monday.
Meanwhile, Nadal sought to look on the bright side after assessing his play as “really bad” while overwhelming the youngest player in the men’s draw, 18-year-old French wild card Gianni Mina, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.
A year ago, Nadal’s 31-match French Open winning streak ended with a fourth-round upset against Robin Soderling, but he figures he is on his way to a new run, saying that he remembers having what he considered spotty starts in the first round each of the four years he went on to win the title.
“I know I have to refocus and calm down and move forward,” Nadal said. “I think I will have no problems.”
Two US women won on Tuesday, too, to join Serena and Venus Williams in the second round: Jill Craybas and Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
Meanwhile, Russian former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova secured a second-round berth at the French Open with a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 win against compatriot Ksenia Pervak on Tuesday.
Sharapova, the 12th seed and a semi-finalist here in 2007, will meet Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens for a place in the last 32.
The Russian superstar and three-time Grand Slam champion was dogged by an elbow injury earlier this year but secured only the second claycourt title of her career — and 22nd in total — at Strasbourg last week.
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