PARIS — Venus Williams was cruising along with a ho-hum 6-3, 4-1 lead over her 35-year-old opponent at the French Open on Monday when suddenly everything went awry.
The double-faults piled up. The forehand errors did, too, and Williams lost six consecutive games to fall behind as a drizzle fell. The crowd was rooting for the underdog, applauding in unison every time 93rd-ranked Tzipora Obziler of Israel earned a point.
When the No. 8-seeded Williams would hit a winner, the sounds of approval emanated mainly from her personal guests. “Whooo!” one of her sisters kept yelling.
Eventually, the six-time major champion managed to turn things around quickly enough to pull out a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Obziler and reach the second round at Roland Garros before the rain washed out the latter part of the day’s matches.
“I’m glad at the end that I figured it out,” Williams said.
Three-time defending men’s champion Rafael Nadal was supposed to follow her on center court, but his match never began. Among those who did play was No. 1 Roger Federer, who wasn’t tested much in a 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Sam Querrey of the United States.
“You never think you’re going to be the guy that’s going to draw him when the draw comes out,” the 40th-ranked Querrey said. “But someone has to.”
The day’s most significant upset was produced by another American, 106th-ranked Wayne Odesnik, who beat No. 29 Guillermo Canas of Argentina 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3), 7-6 (8). The match lasted the minimum number of sets yet took 3 hours, 46 minutes.
“There’s not too much to say. I think he played well,” Canas said. “I didn’t play well at all.”
The only other seeded man to exit on Day 2 was No. 17 Marcos Baghdatis, who lost to Simone Bolelli of Italy in straight sets.
Eighth-seeded Richard Gasquet withdrew because of a left knee injury.
At a glance
A look at the French Open on Monday:
Upsets: Men: No. 17 Marcos
Baghdatis, No. 29 Guillermo
Canas. Women: No. 23 Alona
Bondarenko.
On court today: No. 2 Rafael
Nadal vs. Thomaz Bellucci, No.
4 Nikolay Davydenko vs. Thomas
Johansson, Marat Safin vs.
Jean-Rene Lisnard; No. 1 Maria
Sharapova vs. Evgeniya Rodina,
No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova vs.
Aiko Nakamura, No. 22 Amelie
Mauresmo vs. Olga Savchuk.
Stats of the day: 8 and 31 –
Double-faults and total unforced
errors by Venus Williams
in her 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 victory over
Tzipora Obziler.
Quote of the day: “I didn’t
know what to do.” – Baghdatis,
after his 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 loss to
Simone Bolelli
