Rain fails to halt birthday girl Justine

BIRTHDAY girl Justine Henin-Hardenne and former world number one Lleyton Hewitt moved into the French Open third round yesterday, booking their places before the rains returned to swamp Roland Garros.

Belgium’s Henin-Hardenne, the fifth seed and defending champion, celebrated her 24th birthday in miserable weather conditions as she laboured to beat Anastasia Yakimova of Belarus 6-2, 7-5.

She next plays the winner of the tie between Alize Cornet of France and Tathiana Garbin of Italy for a place in the last 16.

“I don’t remember a day like this before when I played under the rain and I was freezing,” she said. “It was very cold and I had to put on long sleeves in the second set. It was like being in Belgium in November.”

Hewitt and former women’s champion Anastasia Myskina, two players with plenty to prove, also moved into the third round well before the rain caused a lenghty interruption.

Hewitt overcame a difficult first set before seeing off French wildcard Mathieu Montcourt 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 and now faces Slovakian 22nd seed Domimik Hrbaty.

The 25-year-old Hewitt played his first clay court match in two years in Austria last week, lost in the first round and suffered an ankle injury.

But after saving a set point in the 10th game, Hewitt was never really troubled by an opponent ranked 213 in the world and who was playing in his first tour event.

“It was a tough first set,” said Hewitt. “I knew nothing about him before the match so it took time to work him out. But once I got the first set under my belt, I got better as the match went on.”

Myskina, the 2004 winner who suffered the embarrassment of becoming the first defending women’s champion to be knocked out in the first round 12 months later, eased past Melinda Czink of Hungary 6-2, 6-4.

The Russian tenth seed now takes on Serbian 19th seed Ana Ivanovic who defeated Emilie Loit of France 6-1, 6-1 for a place in the fourth round.

Ivanovic reached the French quarter-finals in 2005, accounting for Amelie Mauresmo in the process.

Daniela Hantuchova, the Slovakian 15th seed, defeated Emmanuelle Gagliardi of Switzerland 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 to make the last 32.

Also going through in early action were Czech 11th seed Radek Stepanek, the runner-up at the Hamburg Masters two weeks ago, who beat Davide Sanguinetti of Italy 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.

Olivier Rochus of Belgium, the 27th seed, saw off Jiri Vanek of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-0, 6-2.

He will face Spain’s Alberto Martin, the conqueror of Andy Roddick, for a place in the last 16. Martin beat Dieter Kindlmann of Germany 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.

Tommy Robredo, the Spanish seventh seed, went through beating Serbian qualifier Ilia Bozoljac 7-5, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 and now faces Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic.

Two men’s seeds were knocked out. Argentinean qualifier Martin Vassallo Arguello accounted for the 21st seed, Sebastien Grosjean of France, 1-6, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

Marcos Baghdatis, the 19th seeded Cypriot, who made the Australian Open final in January, lost 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (1/7), 6-4 to Frenchman Julien Benneteau.

Britain’s interest in the tournament ended when Tim Henman was knocked out by Russian 31st seed Dmitry Tursunov. Henman went down 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in a match held over from Wednesday.

It was his third successive loss to Tursunov in the last three Grand Slam tournaments.