Second seed Serena Williams survived a real scare before booking her place in the second round of the French Open with a thrilling three-set win over Klara Zakopalova.
The American, 27, looked far from a potential champion, needing nine match points to scrape past the underdog from the Czech Republic, who is ranked 100th in the world.
An upset looked on the cards when Zakopalova broke to take a 2-1 lead in the deciding set.
Williams, who by that time had squandered five opportunities to wrap up the match, recovered well to claim four games on the bounce and move to the brink of victory.
Zakopalova amazingly saved three more match points as she launched a mini-fightback, breaking to go 5-4 down, but Williams clinched victory at the ninth time of asking to seal a 6-3 6-7 (5/7) 6-4 triumph in two hours and 25 minutes.
Williams, who looked to be bothered by a problem in her left knee, had enough energy to compete in a doubles match with her sister Venus straight afterwards, leaving Zakopalova to rue a missed chance.
‘I think she will play better and better in each round so it was the best time to beat her,’ said the Czech, who defeated an injury-hit Williams in Marbella last month.
‘But this is Serena. She is one of the biggest players here.’
It was 2002 champion Williams' first win of the clay-court season and ended a four-match losing streak, the longest of her 14-year career.
It maintained her record of never having lost to an opponent ranked 100 or lower since her first professional match in 1995 against Anne Miller in Quebec.
Serena joins sister Venus in round two, where she will play Virginia Ruano Pascual.
Earlier, there were routine wins for seventh seed Svetlana Kuznetsova and fifth seed Jelena Jankovic.
Russia's Kuznetsova, the only woman to beat world number one and tournament favourite Dinara Safina on clay this season, eased through 6-1 6-4 against debutant Claire Feuerstein.
Kuznetsova, a semi-finalist here last year and a finalist in 2006, was 5-1 up when play was suspended because of rain at 11.30am local time.
Returning more than two hours later, she only needed another 35 minutes to wrap up victory and a meeting with Galina Voskoboeva.
Two-time Roland Garros semi-finalist Jelena Jankovic was also affected by the rain in her early match against Petra Cetkovska but prevailed 6-2 6-3.
‘I managed to finish the job in two sets, which I'm happy about,’ said the Serbian.
‘I'm trying to make baby steps forward - that is my goal at the moment.’
Fourth seed Elena Dementieva overcame a slow start, which saw her lose her serve twice in the opening three games, to make the second round at the expense of South Africa's Chanelle Scheepers.
The Russian won 6-4 6-3 and will next play Australia's Jelena Dokic.
Caroline Wozniacki, the 10th seed, saw her first-round encounter against Vera Dushevina abandoned last night with the match perfectly poised at one set all, but the Dane returned this afternoon to complete a 4-6 7-5 6-1 victory.
Other seeds to go through today were Anabel Medina Garrigues (18), Aleksandra Wozniak (24), Sybille Bammer (28) and Samantha Stosur (30).
