Davenport and Clijsters Advance

Top seed Lindsay Davenport shrugged off a set and a half of sluggish form to overcome Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of the French Open today.

The American looked out-of-sorts in the opening exchanges, making a number of unforced errors but she recovered to win the next two sets with a display more in keeping with her status as world No1.

Kim Clijsters, who was unsure even up until this morning whether she would be able to compete in the tournament because of a knee problem, trounced American Meilen Tu 6-1, 6-0.

Davenport, who plays China's Shuai Peng in the second round, has been struggling with a hip injury and missed the warm-up events to Roland Garros to ensure she was fresh. But she has only reached the semi-finals in Paris once in 10 attempts and knows that clay is not her favourite surface.

"If any surface neutralises me, it's the clay," she said. "I can overpower most girls and give them less time on other surfaces, but the clay takes that away from me. It hurts my movement and I need that.

"I just need to go out and play the way I'm most comfortable. With a good draw and decent weather, who knows, I could get on a hot streak."

Belgian Clijsters only recently returned to tour action after a wrist injury kept her out for a year. She will play the winner of the match between Ludmila Cervanova and Aiko Nakamura next.