Sharapova survives shaky French outing

PARIS, May 28 (UPI) -- World No. 1 Maria Sharapova survived 17 double faults Wednesday in claiming a first-round victory at the French Open in Paris.

Sharapova took over the top spot -- and supposedly the French Open favorite's position -- when Justine Henin suddenly retired. But Wednesday in her first outing of the year at Roland Garros, she admitted she was close to losing before finishing off a 6-1, 3-6, 8-6 win over Evgeniya Rodina.

She had 17 double faults and just 10 winners in the match. Rodina was within two points of winning the match but Sharapova rallied to hold serve and outlast Rodina.

Other highly seeded players had better performances, including No. 2-seeded Ana Ivanovic, who pasted Lucie Safarova, 6-1, 6-2, and fifth-seeded Serena Williams, who defeated Mathilde Johansson, 6-2, 7-5, in second-round matches.

Also in the second round, 10th-seeded Patty Schnyder defeated Timea Bacsinszky, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1; No. 14-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska ripped Jelena Pandzic, 6-2, 6-0; and 30th-seeded Carolina Wozniacki knocked off Anastasiya Yakimova, 6-0, 6-4.

First-round upsets were posted by Casey Dellacqua, who ousted No. 9 Marion Bartoli, and Aleksandra Wozniak, who eliminated 20th-seeded Sybille Bammer, 6-0, 6-2.

No. 6-seeded Anna Chakvetadze escaped the upset bug with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 win over Nuria Llagostera Vives while seventh-seeded Elena Dementieva stopped Vera Dushevina, 6-7 (6-8), 6-0, 6-2, and 11th-seeded Vera Zvonareva easily handled Stephanie Foretz, 6-2, 6-1.