Far from it.

“We’re the best team in basketball,” he said.

Really? The Cavaliers, winners of 66 regular-season games and their first eight straight in the playoffs, certainly haven’t looked superior to the Orlando Magic.

They can’t stop Dwight Howard inside. They can’t contain Orlando’s squadron of outside shooters. They are missing easy, open shots. They’re not giving LeBron James enough support, and they trail 2-1 in the Eastern Conference finals.

Williams remains confident.

“They deserve respect,” he said. “They are a good team. But we are the best team in basketball. I don’t feel that they’ve had to adjust to us one time in the series.”

So, Mo. You’re sure the Cavaliers will win Game 4 on Tuesday night and rally to win the best-of-seven series. Willing to guarantee it?

“Guarantee we’re going to win the series? Yeah, yeah,” he said. “We are down 2-1. But there is nobody on this team and definitely not myself that says we are not going to win this series. Yeah, it is going to be tough. We know that. We get this game tomorrow, go home, still got home-court advantage.

“We don’t see ourselves losing two out of three at home.”

The Magic brushed off Williams’ boast.

“We just got to go out there and play,” Howard said. “We can’t worry about what other guys are saying.”

James didn’t flinch when told Williams had guaranteed the Cavaliers would advance.

“He should. There’s no other reason why we should be here,” he said.

Orlando, relishing the underdog role in its first conference finals appearance since 1995, won 99-89 on Sunday night in a disjointed Game 3 that included personal fouls, technicals and a flagrant on Magic reserve guard Anthony Johnson for his elbow to Williams’ face in the second quarter.

The blow opened cuts above and below Williams’ eye, and Cleveland’s point guard said he was still feeling a little woozy from an unexpected shot he felt was intentional.

“My head’s still ringing,” said Williams, who refused to take off his shades to show the wounds. “The game of basketball is not played with throwing punches, throwing elbows.”

Johnson refused to get drawn into a verbal war with Williams, who was called for a block on the play that bloodied him.

“I was trying to get to the rim and make a play and I drew a foul,” Johnson said. “Elbows are a part of the game — good and bad. Sometimes it turns out in a bad manner as last night. Elbows are a part of the game, as it is in hockey, as it is in other sports.”

Never one to miss a chance to state his case, Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy defended Johnson and challenged the Cavaliers’ contention that it was a cheap shot.

“They can say whatever they want,” he said. “It’s one of the few times you’ll see a guy with the ball in his hands driving to shoot getting a flagrant foul. I’m not saying he deserved it or didn’t deserve it, it’s just a rare play. It’s usually the guy on defence making it. There’s a lot of things go on we can complain about and they can complain about.

“I was upset at the number of times that they flopped last night. I mean, Ben Wallace and Mo Williams fell down more times than a baby learning to walk.”

James was asked if the Cavaliers would retaliate.

“For what?” he said. “We’re just trying to get wins.”

James has been doing his part. His teammates have not.

The league’s MVP is averaging 41.7 points in the series. But there have been extended periods when it’s LeBron and only LeBron vs. the Magic. The Cavs, so together on and off the court all season, have become a one-man show at the worst time possible.

Williams (32.1 per cent), Zydrunas Ilgauskas (38.2) and Delonte West (41.9) are not shooting up to their standards, and James had his first “off” night in Game 3 (11 of 28), but he scored 41 and had the Cavaliers within five points in the final minute.

James understands he can’t win a championship by himself.

“It’s going to be tough,” he said. “I know they can play a lot better. They know they can play a lot better. I don’t want to put pressure on those guys. They’ve just got to come out and do it. We just got to knock shots down.”

The Magic feel as though they haven’t gotten their proper due all season. While a potential James-Kobe Bryant showdown in the NBA finals has been fuelled by popular TV commercials featuring puppets of the superstars, Orlando’s players have been wondering: Hey, what about us?

“It’s disrespectful when everybody’s counting us and Denver out trying to win a championship,” said Howard, who made the Cavs pay for fouling him by making 14 of 19 free throws in Game 3. “It’s like, forget the Magic, forget Denver. They want to see LeBron and Kobe go at it. So that is disrespectful. The only way you get respect is by going out there and taking it.

“My mind-set is making people respect us.”

James is locked in on ending Cleveland’s 45-year title drought. A loss in Game 4 would place the greatest season in Cavaliers’ history on the brink of collapse.

“I think we’re fine. I’m fine,” he said. “I’m excited about Game 4, and as long as I stay upbeat we have a chance — of course. I’m confident and I’ll make sure the rest of the guys are confident.”

Around here, Shaquille O’Neal means much more.

He represents the link to Orlando’s glorious past, however brief it may be. Shaq, a basket-breaking behemoth with the power of several men, led the Magic to their only NBA final appearance in 1995, a short visit that ended with an embarrassing sweep by Houston.

The Magic and their maniacal fans have longed for a second shot at a title.

They can almost touch it.

Orlando moved to within one win of ending its 14-year final drought Tuesday night as Dwight Howard, the Magic’s present-day Diesel, scored 27 points — 10 in overtime — in a 116-114 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers to take a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference final and shove LeBron James and his not-so-supportive cast to the edge of an early summer break.

A razor-thin series — two one-point games, and a two-pointer in OT — where the last team with the ball usually emerges victorious, could end Thursday night. Maybe.

“We’re up 3-1, but we can’t relax,” said Rashard Lewis, whose catch-and-shoot three-pointer with 4.1 seconds left in regulation was easily Game 4’s most dramatic shot. “Anything can happen.

“We got to go to Cleveland looking to try and close these guys out.”

The Magic got more good news Wednesday when the NBA rescinded Howard’s Game 4 technical foul, his sixth of the playoffs. Under league rules, Howard would’ve been automatically suspended for one game had he received a seventh technical during the postseason.

Orlando heads into Game 5 with no fear of the road. It finished off the defending champion Boston Celtics on their famed parquet floor in a Game 7 in the previous round and have a chance to end Cleveland’s dream season on the court of King James.

The MVP, who scored 44 points in Game 4 and has done everything but drive the team bus in the series, won’t go quietly.

Following Game 4, James, averaging 42.3 points, 7.3 rebound and 7.3 assists, said he’s ready for his next shot at the impressive Magic.

“I’m up for the challenge,” said James, who couldn’t replicate his Game 2 heroics and missed a tough three-pointer at the buzzer in Game 4. “And I think my play, my leadership has spoke for that. So I will be ready, and I think our guys will be ready also.”

Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy, who doesn’t sleep well even when things are going great, knows if anyone can turn this series around it’s the magnificent James.

“This thing is a long, long, long way from over, just like the games in this series have been,” he said. “When you’ve got a guy as great as him on the other side, you’re a long way from done.”

The odds are stacked against the Cavaliers.

In the NBA’s 62-year postseason history, 190 teams have taken a 3-1 lead in a series and 182 of them have won. More daunting for the Cavaliers is that the Magic have won 10 of the past 14 meetings between the teams, and were one of three teams to win at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena this season.

James and Co. are running out of time and answers.

Cleveland’s matchup problems are glaring: Height, depth, speed. You name it, Orlando has it over Cleveland.

When the Cavs have concentrated on stopping Howard down low, the Magic make three-pointers (they hit 17-of-38 in Game 4), and when Cleveland focuses its defence on guarding the perimeter, Howard destroys them near the basket.

Care for some arsenic? Or hemlock?

Orlando’s bench has been a major factor, too, as Rafer Alston (26 points) and Mickael Pietrus (17) gave the Magic a huge lift.

If not for James’ miraculous shot to win Game 2, this series would be over and so would the LeBron versus Kobe final envisioned by many, but not the guys in blue and white.

The Cavaliers can’t figure out what to do next.

“We’re breaking down in areas we haven’t broken down all year,” James said. “We got to give up something.”

In this series, James has become a solo artist in a tight-knit basketball band now splitting up because of creative differences.

Cavs guard Mo Williams may soon become known as the guy who couldn’t back up his guarantee. An all-star guard who hasn’t played close to one, Williams, who missed 10-of-15 shots in Game 4, stuck out his neck by promising Cleveland would rally to win the series.

It will take three straight wins over a team rolling like it hasn’t since the days of Shaq, Penny Hardaway and Nick Anderson.

“All the pressure’s on them,” said Orlando rookie guard Courtney Lee.

James lingered in the corridor outside Cleveland’s locker room following his post-game press conference Tuesday night. He chatted with friends and family, trying to explain what went wrong for the third time in this series.

James was in no rush. And then, Howard and Lewis stepped through a curtain, creating an awkward moment that there was only one way to remedy. The MVP spun, adjusted his designer sunglasses and walked off, heading toward the team charter.

The Cavs left for Ohio, looking for some magic of their own.

The Australians were fined $10,000 and lost the hosting rights of their next home match. But they weren’t suspended for refusing to travel to India for the May 8-10 zonal series.

“It’s all a circus. The whole thing is a circus,” Hewitt said after beating Ivo Karlovic in five sets in the first round of the French Open. “The way the ITF went about it was a disgrace in the first place.”

Tennis Australia had appealed for a change of venue after the ITF said that the southern Indian city of Chennai was approved by security consultants. The appeal was rejected, but Hewitt said the Australian federation was right to play it safe.

“Anything associated with his name would be an absolute honour,” Sabbatini said after a 5-under 65 Saturday to keep a share of the lead at the Byron Nelson Championship.

Two years after his last victory, at the Colonial where Ben Hogan’s larger-than-life statue is prominent, Sabbatini is in position to win again after five birdies in a seven-hole stretch midway through his third round.

Sabbatini and John Mallinger, who entered the third round tied as co-leaders, both shot 65 to get to 13-under 197. That is two strokes ahead of three other players.

“Obviously got off to a good start, just putting the ball in the right spots, putting it on the greens, hitting some good putts,” Sabbatini said. “And then never really got anything going until No. 5.”

Even for the day until he got to the 174-yard fifth hole, Sabbatini’s pin-high tee shot rolled back and lipped the cup to set up a three-foot birdie. He also had three consecutive birdies before making the turn, capped by a 41-footer on the 427-yard ninth hole.

Mallinger, without a win in his first 76 PGA Tour events, had his second consecutive 65. The bogey-free round was much different from Friday, when he had two eagles, four birdies and three bogeys.

“Today was the type of golf that I like to play. Normally, that’s my game,” Mallinger said. “I kind of had a game plan going in and I stuck with it. I executed, and that was the biggest thing. Being the leader, it was always a little different feeling.”

Mike Weir of Bright’s Grove, Ont., remained in contention, firing a third-round 66 to move into a tie for 17th at 7 under.

Dustin Johnson struggled after going 6 under through eight holes. He shot 66 to get in at 11 under with D.A. Points (65) and Brian Davis (66). At 10 under were Kevin Streelman (64), Glen Day (65) and Briny Baird (67), who was 5 under through seven holes before three bogeys in a five-hole stretch.

Sabbatini, playing only a few miles from his home this week and next at the Colonial, had a season-low round of 64 Friday. Now he has the best two-round stretch of the season.

After his only bogey, when he missed fairway at No. 14 and had to punch out short of the water, Sabbatini got that stroke back with an 11-foot birdie at No. 15.

Sabbatini wore a pink ribbon atop his cap, the symbol for breast cancer awareness. Phil Mickelson this week indefinitely suspended his golfing schedule following wife Amy’s diagnosis.

“Phil and Amy Mickelson are definitely forefront in everyone’s thoughts out here,” Sabbatini said. “We all know that she’s a strong and determined person, and she’ll pull through it.”

Mallinger made a nine-foot birdie at the 528-yard third, and tapped in for par on the next hole after missing an eight-footer. Consecutive birdies followed, and his only other birdies after that came at Nos. 14 and 15.

Sabbatini had supporters wearing black T-shirts that read “Rory’s Rowdy Roadies” on the front and “Team Sabo” on the back. One of the supporters in Mallinger’s gallery was his tennis-playing buddy Mark Knowles, who delayed his trip to Paris for doubles competition at the French Open.

“He was supposed to take off (Saturday), and we had a bet if I got in the leader group he had to change his flight,” said Mallinger, who has to go to Paris if Knowles makes the finals.

Because of the threat of thunderstorms, players teed off in threesomes off Nos. 1 and 10 and everyone was done by mid-afternoon without any delays or rain. There will be normal tee times with twosomes off No. 1 in the final round.

Davis (66) was in the last-group threesome that included the leaders. He had two birdies the first three holes before the first of his four bogeys.

Johnson was 13 under when he capped a streak of four consecutive birdies with a nine-footer at the 461-yard No. 8 after hitting his approach from the rough.

But Johnson then went right and then left on consecutive wayward tee shots, taking penalty strokes on both. The tee shot at the 427-yard ninth hole went into the water and his 33-foot par putt slid just right of the cup.

After hitting his drive at the 435-yard 10th way left into an unplayable lie near more water, Johnson momentarily stood on the box staring ahead. Once he got to his ball, he took a drop in an adjacent fairway and knocked the approach to three feet to save par.

He had three bogeys the final six holes, including the par-5 16th.

“Turning on the back I struggled with my tee balls a lot,” Johnson said. “I ended up with 66, so that’s never bad. I’m right there in it.”

Divots: PGA Tour rookie Marc Leishman had a career-low round of 63, the best of the day. Starting on the back nine, Leishman had three consecutive birdies, back-to-back bogeys and then three more birdies before his first par came on No. 18. … There are four defending Nelson champions still playing. The closest to the leaders is 1987 winner Fred Couples at 8-under 202 after his three rounds in the 60s.

The stately Russian yesterday played her first Grand Slam tournament since Wimbledon in June of 2008, advancing to the second round of the French Open with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus.

There is something aloof about Sharapova that doesn’t inspire the warm-fuzzies that someone like Ana Ivanovic or even Dinara Safina does. But she is a true phenomenon, a 6-foot-2 marketing dream with both good looks and superior athletic ability. Since finally shutting down her troublesome shoulder last August after winning her opening match at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, she has played one singles tournament, going 2-1 last week in Warsaw, before arriving in Paris for Roland Garros.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen [today], how my shoulder is going to feel,” she said after slowly finding her heavy-hitting form to outclass the No. 64-ranked Yakimova.

Sharapova, ranked No. 102 after her inactivity, insists she has been reassured by doctors that the shoulder will return to its former functionality. The operation last October corrected a painful impingement – not a tear.

She has a very loose shoulder joint and, because her serve is such an integral part of her game, doctors are wary about tinkering with it for fear it could have dire consequences on her game.

One might also add, on her bank account.

Sharapova’s website lists her nine principal sponsors, among them Canon, Land Rover, Nike, Tiffany and Co. and Sony Ericsson. At 22, the little girl who left Russia at 61/2 to train at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida is mature beyond her years when it come to financial affairs.

With estimated annual income of between $25-million and $30-million (U.S), she has become a valuable commercial commodity like her fellow Russian Anna Kournikova, only she’s got a lot more game. That may be too harsh on Kournikova, who didn’t have the drive, raw talent and intelligence to accomplish what Sharapova has – namely the No. 1 ranking and Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open.

Where the glamorous Kournikova was a tennis star who morphed into a showbiz superstar, Sharapova is a tennis superstar who has compartmentalized all the related glitz and hoopla into a kind of manageable, parallel package.

“Tennis,” Sharapova said yesterday, “drives everything, drives myself, drives my business, drives everything that I do.”

During her hard times rehabilitating from surgery, she did not touch a racquet for three months, and she got antsy. That’s another part of Sharapova that differs from Kournikova – she has a visceral need to play and compete. “Fifteen minutes before your match when you’re pumping yourself up and going to go out there in front of 20,000 people, you miss that,” she said. “I certainly missed it.”

Against Yakimova in the intimate 4,500-seat stadium nicknamed the Bullring because of its circular shape, Sharapova wore a steel-blue dress with a loose, sheer, Mediterranean blue, sash-like material around her waste.

Along with Serena Williams, 27, and Venus Williams, 29 next month, who both also include fashion as an integral adjunct of their tennis fame, Sharapova is the player all tournament directors covet, the one who confers instant credibility and marquee buzz to an event.

“I can’t wait to wear my new dress on court here. … It is one of my all-time faves,” she wrote on her website before playing Roland Garros. “And, of course, the Tiffany earrings … so beautiful.”

At her postmatch media conference yesterday, there was a nary a question about her new tennis dress or her accessories.

She would probably have preferred otherwise. A young woman, even one who has assets approximating a small corporation, surely wants affirmation of her fashion sensibility.

Playing during an overcast midday period in Paris when all the opening matches were interrupted by rain, Wozniak, the 24th seed, was able to overcome the conditions and a very unpredictable opponent.

Niculescu, 21 and ranked No. 58 on the WTA Tour, is as unorthodox a player as there is in the top 100. Capable of pounding her backhands and forehands hard, she remarkably hits a large number of her forehands with slice or underspin. That would have fit with tennis a century ago, but hardly in 2009. She also mixed in a lot of high lobs or ‘moonballs,’ as well as a heavy dose of drop shots, to break up the rhythm of the hard-hitting Canadian.

Niculescu was also very emotional, occasionally lapsing into tears when things went badly only to quickly snap out of it and get on the with the match. There was also some throwing of her racquet, hitting her head with the racquet and vocal outbursts.

In the decisive third set, Wozniak fell behind 3-1 before winning five games in a row. The momentum shift was not that obvious, more a matter of Wozniak steadying her game and the sturdy Romanian slowly unravelling emotionally.

“She’s a really tricky player, she plays everything – slices, drop shots, volleys…everything,” Wozniak said. “I’m not used to playing players like that because I’m at a high level where it’s really heavy, hard balls and really high intensity. So it was a tricky first round. It was full of emotions. You really want to win so you feel a bit tight during the whole match. I’m glad that I pulled it out and I played smart.”

Part of being smart was adjusting to how Niculescu played.

“At first, I was mixing it up a lot, but she liked that,” Wozniak said. “So I started to hit faster and deeper, really deep. And then I tried to be ready for the short ball (on Niculescu’s reply) but there were so many short balls…it never ended. I had to keep pushing myself to accelerate and hit heavy – away from her into the corners.”

Niculescu was very demonstrative against Wozniak, who normally has an even-tempered demeanour on court.

“It only bothered me once,” Wozniak said. “I said ‘shut your mouth,’ but not really out loud, because she was screaming all the time.”

A year ago, Wozniak reached the third round at Roland Garros. She will next play qualifier Petra Martic of Croatia, who is 18 and ranked No. 196.

Maybe the weather will be better for her second-round match. “It was tough conditions out there – windy, we’re playing in the rain from the beginning of the match, in the middle to the end,” Wozniak said. “You thought they were going to call it off…they didn’t. So you mentally had to stay focused. The rain, the wind, it was so difficult.”

On Tuesday, after a wildly-fluctuating 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4 victory over the 100th-ranked player in the world, Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic, Williams launched into her usual litany about how pitifully she performed, beginning with, “I played horrendous.” She then threw in the adjective “horrible” and tied it all together with, “I just played junior tennis or even worse.”

Williams had lost her three previous matches on clay this spring, including to Zakopalova in Marbella, Spain, early last month. That lack of success, more than any rant about poor form, was the best explanation for the way she played.

“I was a little nervous because I hadn’t won a match on clay all year,” she said. “I was just desperate for a win. It pretty much showed in my game.”

Williams’s inability or unwillingness to give credit to her opponents extends to her own sister. After Venus defeated her 7-5, 6-4 in last summer’s Wimbledon final, Serena was all about herself, declaring, “I did not play well, that’s all.”

On Tuesday, in the cozy confines of the 10,000-seat Court Suzanne Lenglen, she dominated the first set and had the match under control leading 5-3 in the second.

She held five match points in that game but the spunky Zakopalova, just 5-foot-5, refused to give in and won the game, as well as the hearts of the French crowd. On the fourth match point, there was a long, rollicking rally with Williams screaming and squealing more frantically with every exchange. She was providing an increasingly emotional, aural play-by-play of her inner anguish. The passionate patrons on Suzanne Lenglen began to laugh more and more as the point went on.

Finally, Williams hit a forehand long and they roared their support of the over-matched Zakopalova.

Later, two different French spectators would use the analogy of David and Goliath to explain why the Czech had become the crowd’s chou chou (darling).

About the crowd’s lack of support, Williams declared, “They don’t really pull for me a lot here.”

The French are fickle fans, and they also like to participate in the proceedings. Compare the boisterous accompaniment to Williams’s play to the low-decibel, efficiency of the Zakopolova game, and it was a given who would be their favourite.

Williams feeds off a constant beating up of herself on the court to produce tennis that is arguably the best ever by a woman in any generation. She reaches into a reserve of competitive drive that makes her, as a fighter, the equal of the best in women’s tennis history, Monica Seles and Chris Evert among them.

But there is a price to pay for expressing it in such a bellicose, visceral manner on court – and that is the support of the crowd.

“I think I played a really good match today,” Zakopalova said. She went on to make a commendably reasoned assessment. “Serena will be playing better and better each round, so it was the best chance to play with her, or beat her.”

About the crowd support that she earned with her honest effort, she said, “The public was absolutely fantastic. I’ve never played behind a crowd like this. It was one of the best experiences of my life.”

In the final game of Tuesday’s match, with a shaky-looking Williams having lost the first point, a supporter in her camp behind the court shouted, “Got to be aggressive Serena – take it.” She responded like a true champion, blasting a Zakopalova second serve for a winner. She did not lose another point.

That is just how good she is but, for such a supremely gifted player, more should be expected, an element of noblesse oblige regarding her opponents.

When it comes to the Williams that tennis fans have been exposed to over the years, it is easily understood why there are such entrenched feelings, for and against her.

Top-seeded Rafael Nadal looked his usual dominant self in the first round, beating Marcos Daniel of Brazil 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 for his 29th straight win on the red clay at Roland Garros.

“At the beginning, I didn’t quite get the best feelings, but I won in three sets. That’s very positive,” Nadal said. “I should have won more easily … but it was a difficult match.”

Roger Federer, the man Nadal beat in the last three French Open finals, had an easier time in his opening match, defeating Alberto Martin of Spain 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.

Dinara Safina, the top-seeded player in the women’s draw, advanced along with No. 3 Venus Williams and unseeded Maria Sharapova.

Nadal’s win bettered the French Open record held by Bjorn Borg, who won 28 straight from 1978-81. Nadal also equalled the overall tournament record, matching the 29 straight that Chris Evert won between 1974-75 and 1979-81. Evert did not play at the French Open from 1976-78.

Nadal was broken three times by Daniel, but the top-seeded Spaniard remained perfect on the French Open’s red clay as he tries to become the first player to win five straight titles at Roland Garros.

“His backhand is better than his forehand, but I think I made it a bit easy for him,” Nadal said. “That’s my opinion.”

Federer has won 13 major titles, but he still needs to win the French Open to complete a career Grand Slam.

Against Martin, who missed the last two French Open tournaments because of injury and then by failing to qualify, Federer appeared to play effortlessly.

“I didn’t have much trouble on my service games,” Federer said before leaving centre court. “I mixed up my shots well to finish it off.”

Also advancing on the men’s side were sixth-seeded Andy Roddick of the United States, No. 10 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, No. 12 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, No. 17 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, No. 23 Robin Soderling of Sweden, No. 30 Victor Hanescu of Romania and No. 32 Paul-Henri Mathieu of France.

Roddick beat French wild-card entry Romain Jouan 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 to win a match at the French Open for the first time since 2005.

Safina routed Anne Keothavong of Britain 6-0, 6-0, spraying shots to all parts of the court.

“I was just playing point by point, game by game, and it ended up like this,” said Safina, half of the only brother-sister combination alongside Marat Safin to have served as the No. 1-ranked player in the world.

Keothavong had a couple of chances against Safina, but she wasted two break points in the third game of the first set, and led 40-0 in the fourth game of the second but couldn’t hold on.

“When that’s happening to you all you want to do is get on the scoreboard, but I wasn’t able to do that,” said Keothavong, who saved four match points before Safina hit a forehand winner down the line. “It just kept getting harder and harder.”

Victoria Azarenka and Ana Ivanovic won 6-0, 6-0 at the French Open last year, and Serena Williams did it in 2003.

Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam champion, survived a sudden second-set slump to beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-1, 4-6, 6-2. She won the match’s first five games, while Mattek-Sands asked for a medical time-out during the first set so a trainer could look at her right wrist.

“I’m definitely a third-set player,” Williams said. “Once I get to the third set … I feel a new level coming.”

Williams has never won the French Open, but she did reach the final in 2002 when she lost to little sister Serena. Overall, Williams holds a 36-12 record at Roland Garros, giving her the most wins of any player in the women’s draw at the tournament.

Sharapova played with a bandage on her ailing right shoulder, and she struggled in the first set before beating Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.

The unseeded Russian was broken three times in the first set, but she opened the second with four straight wins before being broken once again. Before the start of the next game, Yakimova called for a trainer to work on her lower back.

Sharapova, who was playing in a Grand Slam match for the first time since last year’s Wimbledon, made her season debut in singles this month in Poland, reaching the quarter-finals in her first tournament since taking time off because of the shoulder injury.

The three-time major champion needs only to win the French Open to complete a career Grand Slam.

No. 15 Zheng Jie of China, No. 20 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, No. 22 Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain and No. 29 Agnes Szavay of Hungary also advanced to the second round of the women’s tournament, but No. 23 Alisa Kleybanova of Russia was upset by Polona Hercog of Slovenia 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.

Marat Safin gets a second consecutive Court Philippe Chatrier appearance today. He plays French wild card Josselin Ouanna. Meanwhile, his sister and world No.1, Dinara Safina, is relegated to the second stadium, Court Suzanne Lenglin, for a match with qualifier and fellow Russian, Vitalia Diatchenko, 18.

Meanwhile, Venus Williams could be tested by tenacious Czech Lucie Safarova, while Maria Sharapova is in tough against Russian compatriot Nadia Petrova.

THE PASSING SHOT

Upon her recent return from a shoulder ailment and subsequent surgery, Maria Sharapova said, “In these nine months, the only thing I’ve accomplished is probably a good pasta carbonara. At the end of the day, that’s not my specialty. My specialty is to go out and compete and win Grand Slams.”

BY THE NUMBERS

4

The number of Argentines in the second round who all come from the same tennis school in Tandil – Juan Martin del Potro, Juan Monaco, Maximo Gonzalez and Diego Junqueira.

6

Number of years between first-round wins at the French Open for Yugoslavian-born Jelena Dokic, 26. The former world No. 4 defeated Karolina Sprem of Slovenia 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 yesterday, but hadn’t advanced beyond the opening round at Roland Garros since 2003.

THE QUOTE

I like the colour. I’ve always liked red, or whatever it is.

Bernard Tomic, a 16-year-old Australian, when asked if there’s anything he likes about the ochre-hued clay at Roland Garros. Considered the great hope of Australian tennis, he lost in the first round at the French Open yesterday and later said he much prefers hard courts to clay.

THE TYPICALLY FRENCH

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the 2008 Australian Open runner-up, is a Frenchman with flair. To celebrate his first win at Roland Garros, he showed up at his media conference yesterday in a classic, black, adidas shirt – and a black tie. “They do it in other sports for the media, so why not tennis,” he said. “I asked my team if I could wear a tuxedo but they said it was out of the question.”

The second-seeded Williams was broken twice during a windy second set, including when she was serving for the match at 5-4. At 5-3 with Zakopalova serving, she had five match points but couldn’t close it out.

Zakopalova saved three more match points before holding to 5-3 in the third set, then broke Williams in the next game to get back on serve.

Williams completed her “Serena Slam” at the French Open in 2002, winning her fourth straight Grand Slam title. If she wins at Roland Garros this year, she’ll have won three majors in a row after victories at the U.S. Open and the Australian Open.

She reached the final at Wimbledon last year, but lost to big sister Venus in the final.

Third-seeded Jelena Jankovic and No. 7 Svetlana Kuznetsova also advanced in the women’s tournament, while No. 4 Novak Djokovic and No. 5 Juan Martin del Potro made it through on the men’s side.

Jankovic dominated her opponent before a two-hour rain delay, and then did well enough after it to beat Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3.

The former top-ranked Serb was leading 4-1 when the rain started at Roland Garros. She quickly closed out the first set when play resumed and continued to play well on Cetkovska’s serve in the second but was broken twice on her own.

“I was controlling the points … but then we had to stop because of the rain,” Jankovic said. “I felt a little bit slow after the rain delay.”

While serving for the match, Jankovic again struggled and was forced to save break points before finally winning.

“The serve was all right. I didn’t go for too much,” said Jankovic, who added the balls were heavier than usual because of the wet weather. “I just tried to have a high percentage.”

Jankovic finished last season as the top-ranked player on the women’s tour, but the 24-year-old Serb is still looking to win her first Grand Slam singles title after losing in the final of last year’s U.S. Open.

Kuznetsova defeated Claire Feuerstein of France 6-1, 6-4. The 2004 U.S. Open champion also dominated before the rain started falling, leading 5-1.

Djokovic advanced when Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador retired while trailing 6-3, 3-1 after injuring his left ankle. Lapentti hurt his ankle when coming to net at 5-2 in the first set. He called for a trainer but then continued playing.

The fourth-seeded Djokovic, who won his fourth career title on clay at this month’s Serbia Open, has reached the semifinals at the French Open the last two years. He also won the 2008 Australian Open.

Del Potro had little trouble in his opening match at Roland Garros, beating Michael Llodra of France 6-3, 6-3, 6-1. The Argentina won four straight ATP titles last year, the first two on clay.

No. 27 Rainer Schuettler of Germany narrowly avoided a “triple bagel” after being shut out in the first two sets of a 6-0, 6-0, 6-4 loss to Marc Gicquel of France.

On Friday, Schuettler lost to Robin Soderling 6-0, 6-0 at the ATP World Team Championship in Germany.

“A ‘double bagel’ is fine,” said Schuettler, who reached the semifinals at last year’s Wimbledon. “I had one last week. It’s nothing new.”

Gicquel was unapologetic about the thrashing.

“I didn’t come here to sympathize,” said the Frenchman, who was trying to win the third set at love as well. “If I tried to give him one or two games, then everything could be overturned against me.”

No. 11 Gael Monfils of France also advanced, easily beating Bobby Reynolds of the United States 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 despite being hampered by a knee injury.