Azarenka survives a scare in her Paris opener
AUSTRALIAN OPEN champion Victoria Azarenka was eased from 7-2 to 4-1 on Monday night to make it back-to-backGrand Slam triumphs after surviving a huge scare in her Roland Garros opener.
Bookmakers took down their outright prices yesterday lunchtime when it looked as if world No. 1 Azarenka was about to make an inglorious exit on day two of the French Open.
She was matched at a high of 6.6 on Betfair to progress to the last 64
- and 40 for the title - when she trailed Italian veteran Alberta
Brianti by a set and was 4-0 down in the second.
However, the Belarusian quickly turned the match on its head and ended up triumphing 6-7 6-4 6-2 to set up a second-round clash with qualifier Dinah Pfizenmaier.
Roger Federer never got out of second gear in the course of despatching Tobias Kamke 6-2 7-5 6-3 and the world No. 3's early draw got considerably easier when David Nalbandian was dumped out 6-3 5-7 6-4 7-5 by Adrian Ungur. Novak Djokovic hardly broke sweat in ousting Potito Starace 7-6 6-3 6-1.
Injury-hit Vera Zvonareva took no part in the competition and was
replaced by lucky loser Sesil Karatantcheva, who made the most of her good fortune when thrashing Timea Babos 6-0 6-1.
American Christina McHale performed wonders to fight back and thwart Fes champion Kiki Bertens 2-6 6-4 6-4.
