DEFENDING champion Serena Williams raced into the third round of the French Open along with Belgian fourth seed Justine Henin-Hardenne. However, Slovak ninth seed Daniela Hantuchova and former champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov headed for the exit.

SERENA WILLIAMS got the successful defence of her French Open title off to the perfect start on the opening day as she streaked into the second round with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Barbara Rittner of Germany to be joined by rivals Amelie Mauresmo and Justine Henin-Hardenne.

Unseeded Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov produced one of the biggest shocks of the clay court season by knocking out third seed Carlos Moya 6-4 7-6 (7/4) to advance to the quarter-finals of the Telecom Italia Masters in Rome.

As the tennis world digested the fact of Russia‘s enthralling first-ever Davis Cup final win, their top-ranked player described the experience as “better than sex”.

Fabrice Santoro and Nicolas Escude have pushed France to within one victory of a successful Davis Cup title defence by beating Russian duo Marat Safin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov in a five-set thriller.

Great Britain were handed a victory over Germany in the ARAG ATP World Team Championship when Lars Burgsmuller was forced to retire from the doubles match in Dusseldorf.

Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras were first-day winners, while Yevgeny Kafelnikov was upset by Scott Draper at the Kooyong Classic exhibition tennis tournament in Melbourne.

Seventh seed Rainer Schuettler has knocked top-seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov out of the Qatar Open.

Australian star Lleyton Hewitt tops the latest ATP competition rankings following his victory at the Masters Cup in Sydney at the weekend.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov got his Masters Cup campaign off to a winning start after coming from a set down to defeat Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero in Sydney.

Lleyton Hewitt surged into his first Grand Slam final tonight when he demolished the challenge of Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

American sisters Venus and Serena Williams are to meet in the women’s final of the US Open tonight.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov strode to a stunning straight sets win over top seed Gustavo Kuerten in the quarter-finals of the US Open.

There are two US Open quarter finals this evening.

World number one Gustavo Kuerten became tennis’s great escapologist early this morning to scrape through an extraordinary US Open third round match with Max Mirnyi.

Seventh seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov became the biggest casualty of the men’s draw today when he was beaten in four sets by Argentinian baseliner Guillermo Canas.

It was one of the most sensational performances by a British tennis player that has ever been seen at Wimbledon, but before the tournament the name Barry Cowan would have drawn blank expressions even in his native Lancashire.

Tim Henman is a 9-1 fourth favourite to win Wimbledon with bookmakers William Hill following the announcement of the seedings.

British number one Tim Henman has been named number six seed for next week's Wimbledon tournament.

The undisputable King Of Clay and two-time champ Gustavo Kuerten comes up against a Spanish claycourt soldier in Alex Corretja, who will employ some of his finest artillery in a bid to dethrone the master, in the French Open men's singles final today.

Reigning champion Gustavo Kuerten swept into the semi-finals of the French Open as he piled on the misery for Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

Pete Sampras and Yevgeny Kafelnikov followed Marat Safin out of the Ericsson Masters Series in Miami.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov had to dig deep to overcome American qualifier Jeff Tarango and book his place in the last 16 of the Milan Indoors Tournament at the Palalido.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov came from a set down to defeat American Chris Woodruff in four sets in the Australian Open.