Nadal, Federer and Safina sparkle

World number ones Rafael Nadal and Dinara Safina dazzled their opponents in the Parisian sun yesterday to blaze into the second round of the French Open.

Brazil's Marcos Daniel fought valiantly for almost 2-1/2 hours before suffering the same fate as four-times champion Nadal's previous 28 opponents at the claycourt grand slam, going down 7-5 6-4 6-3.

Roland Garros also caught a brief glimpse of Safina - although if you blinked you might have missed her - as the Russian white-washed Britain's Anne Keothavong 6-0 6-0.

Roger Federer would have preferred to have got even more hot and bothered but that did not stop him from hotfooting into the last 64 with a 6-4 6-3 6-2 victory over Spaniard Alberto Martin.

The crowd had barely had time to file into Centre Court and settle into their baking-hot plastic seats before Safina, who looks poised to improve on her 2008 runner-up finish, had dashed back into the cooler confines of the locker room.

So ferocious were Safina's groundstrokes that a linesman was lucky to dodge one of her missiles. Keothavong might have won 33 points but 24 of these came from Safina's unforced errors.

Venus Williams dropped the second set but still beat American Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-1 4-6 6-2.

Roland Garros has never been a happy hunting ground for Maria Sharapova or Andy Roddick but they kept alive their chances with contrasting victories.

Twelve months after Sharapova competed in Paris as the world number one, the Russian turned up ranked 102nd as she is on a comeback trail following a nine-month injury layoff.

Some things, however, never change as Sharapova battled to a 3-6 6-1 6-2 victory over Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus.

Roddick reached the second round for the first time since 2005 by smothering French wildcard Romain Jouan 6-2 6-4 6-2.