With news of Serena Williams shock exit still rocking the ladies locker room at Roland Garros, a rather hopeful bunch of 64 women, armed with the belief that anything truly is possible, kicked off second round action at the French Open. Top seed Victoria Azarenka was quick in dispelling that belief and was joined in round 3 by Samantha Stosur, Ana Ivanovic and Dominika Cibulkova, all of whom appeared to be competing to see who could get off court fastest. The same though could not be said for three seeded players as the Czech pairing of Lucie Safarova and Petra Cetkovska, and Zheng Jie of China all made second round exits.

World no.1 Vika Azarenka was on the brink of a first round exit at the hands of 32-year old Italian Alberta Brianti, but having dodged that bullet appeared in no mood for a repeat performance as completely crushed German qualifier Dinah Pfizenmaier 6-1, 6-1 in less than an hour. The top seed earned a meeting with Canadian Aleksandra Wozniack  in the third round. Wozniak scored a decisive 6-2, 6-4 victory over 31st seed Zheng Jie, hitting 20 winners along the way. This is the fourth time in her career that she has reached the third round in Paris.

After Serena Williams' shock defeat in the opening round of the French Open yesterday at the hands of Virginie Razzano, the message around the locker room was rather clear - expect no easy matches at Roland Garros. While 16-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer and the 'Tower of Tandil' Juan Martin del Potro will bear testament to that fact, Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych were more inclined to providing the exception to the rule. The good news though for the seeded players in the men's draw at Roland Garros on Wednesday afternoon was that they all survived.

Top seed Novak Djokovic was merciless in the opening set of his second round encounter with Slovakian Blaz Kavcic, crushed him 6-0 in just 23 minutes. With a bagel in the first set, the Serbian was clearly in no mood to stretch out the match, but Kavcic slowly found his form in the second set. Kavcic broke Djokovic’s serve and went up 3-1, much to the Serb’s disgust. The Slovakian battled to hold on to his serve in the games that followed and was eventually broken twice as Djokovic sealed the set 6-4. Kavcic hung in there in the early exchanges of the third set, and had more than the odd decent look-in, but failed to take his chances as Djokovic closed out the match, 6-0, 6-4, 6-4. Djokovic will meet Nicolas Devilder in the third round.

Serena Williams came into the French Open for the first time in her career as the overwhelming favourite. Despite winning the title in 2002 in what was the first step of the 'Serena Slam', the younger of the two Williams sisters was never really the kind of player whose game was ideally suited to clay. However, victories on the surface at Charleston and Madrid earlier this season saw her emerge through the summer unbeaten on clay, her only 'defeats' coming through withdrawals. Her opponent on Tuesday was supposed to be cannon fodder - a 29-year old Frenchwoman well past her prime, who had made 7 first round exits at Roland Garros, and looked on course for no.8 when her lucky 13th attempt at her home Grand Slam drew her against an in-form 13-time Grand Slam champion in Serena Williams.

The beginning of the first set proved to be a topsy-turvy affair as both players struggled with their footwork in slippery conditions on Court Philippe Chatrier. Service turned out to be a liability as both women were broken four times within the first eight games itself. Initially, Serena struggled more with her footing which manifested in the form of unforced errors - her tally was as high as 15 after the first 6 games. Visibly frustrated, Serena's first serve percentage also started to plummet. The American's lackluster play combined with the Virginie's controlled aggression gave the unseeded Frenchwoman a 4-2 lead.  This proved to be just the wake up call the American required as the favourite reeled off 4 consecutive games breaking her opponent twice in the process, with a series of powerful returns to take the first set 6-4.

The Indian challenge in the Women's Doubles event at French Open ended early as the 15th seeded pairing of Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek-Sands lost their first round match on Court 10 at Roland Garros on Tuesday. The Indo-American pair went down to the scratch pairing of Nina Bratchikova and Edina Gallovits-Hall pair in a closely fought match, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5.

Sania and Bethanie dropped the first set, but recovered well in the second to draw level in the match. The third set was fought closely, as the 2 pairs traded breaks of serve at regular intervals. But it was the unseeded pair of Bratchikova and Gallovits-Hall, who got the most vital break of the contest right at the end, snatching away the match from the experienced duo.

The 'King of Clay' Rafael Nadal cleared his opening round of the French Open in style with a thumping 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Simone Bolelli of Italy. The six-time French Open Champion was ruthless in demolishing his opponent and was hardly troubled in the match. Nadal's power packed forehand was too good for the Italian, who just had no answer for the champion's precision. Rafa keeps proving time and again that he is the greatest player on the red surface and a seventh title at Roland Garros seems within his reach. There were also wins on Tuesday for world no.4 Andy Murray, 6th seed David Ferrer and Serbian no.2 Janko Tipsarevic.

The first set went as per plan for Nadal as he broke his opponent's serve twice to wrap up the set in 35 minutes. Bolelli's serve was broken in the sixth game and eighth games to give Rafa the first set. Right through the first set, the World no.2 was flawless with his serve and produced some impeccable down the line winners. He won the set without having to face even a break point. A majority of Bolelli's returns landed in the net and he ended up with 14 unforced errors as compared to Rafa's seven. Bolelli played some brave rallies but it only served as a good work out for the defending champion.

Wimbledon Champion Petra Kvitova, 2010 French Open Champion Francesca Schiavone and world no.2 Maria Sharapova registered comfortable wins to kick off their campaigns at Roland Garros in style. The first two ladies were the star attractions on the two main showcourts in the 11am kick-offs, and made short work of their respecitve opponents to power into the second round. Sharapova meanwhile followed Kvitova on Suzanne Lenglen, and quickly followed her off too, distributing a double bagel to unfortunate Romanian Alexandra Cadantu.

Petra Kvitova, seeded fourth despite having had a rather poor season, showed that she was very much in a Grand Slam mindset producing a very professional display against 16-year old Australian wildcard Ashleigh Barty winning in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2. Kvitova was on song in a very one-sided first set, producing 10 winners and dropping just 3 points on serve in romping through the opening set rather easily.