Capriati fumbles way into third round

Defending champion Jennifer Capriati fumbled her way past Amy Frazier 6-4, 6-3 and into the French Open third round, despite a patchy performance dominated by unforced errors.

If Capriati was never really in danger during her victory against the World No61, neither was she at her best during the clumsy 69-minute contest.

Both players struggled during their service games resulting in 14 breaks of serve in 19 games.

"With the (rainy) weather, we're not having a lot of practice time. It'll get better," said Capriati. "My serve sometimes is not consistent although overall I think it's been okay."

Undoubtedly the cloudy weather and humidity from previous days made the Philippe Chatrier court slow and heavy, not favouring attacking tennis. But overall it was an inconsistent performance from the Australian Open champion, even though she eventually secured a fourth victory in four encounters with Frazier.

She also took her unbeaten run at Roland Garros to nine matches which should become 10 after the next round as she will meet Australian Evie Dominikovic, ranked a modest 111th in the world.

Sixteenth seed Barbara Schett stumbled, however, the Austrian losing 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 to American Chanda Rubin.

It was better news for the 17th seed Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand. She advanced with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 victory over Jana Kandarr.

Second round results: Elena Likhovtseva (Russia) beat Martina Muller (Germany) 7-5, 6-4; Vera Zvonareva (Russia) beat Marta Marrero (Spain) 6-2, 6-1; Chanda Rubin (U.S.) beat Barbara Schett (Austria) 5-7, 6-3, 7-5; Tamarine Tanasugarn (Thailand) beat Jana Kandarr (Germany) 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. Evie Dominikovic (Australia) beat Angelique Widjaja (Indonesia) 7-6 (7-4), 6-4; Jennifer Capriati (US) beat Amy Frazier (US) 6-4, 6-3; Katarina Srebotnik (Slovenia) beat Conchita Martinez Granados (Spain) 6-1, 6-0.

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