PARIS - Amelie Mauresmo held her nerve and her serve when it counted Tuesday, reaching the second round of the French Open by defeating Olga Savchuk 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 in a match disrupted by rain.
Mauresmo, who missed the Italian and German Opens because of a rib injury, looked shaky much of her time on center court.
"I had ups and downs, good things and some big mistakes, and that's also linked to very short preparation time," said Mauresmo, who won the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2006. "But that's the kind of match that's nice to get through, and especially with such a third set.
"So now all I have to do is hope it gets better for my next match."
The start of play Tuesday was delayed 2 hours, 50 minutes because of rain, but Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina reached the second round before another rain delay of nearly three hours.
When play resumed, No. 14 Agnieszka Radwanska defeated Mariya Koryttseva 6-4, 6-3. Among the men, fourth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko stopped 2002 Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 and No 9 Stanislas Wawrinka defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-4, 6-3. No. 13 Juan Monaco lost to Robin Soderling 6-2, 6-3, 6-1.
Only 13 matches were completed Tuesday, five from the men's tournament and eight from the women's.
Three-time defending champion Rafael Nadal, who was originally scheduled to play his first match Monday, played two games against Thomaz Bellucci before rain suspended play for the day with the score 1-1.
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