PARIS, (Reuters) – Ana Ivanovic used her champion’s  instinct yesterday as she was made to sweat for more than two  hours by a little-known Italian who had never won a French Open  match.

While Ivanovic barely resembled the player crowned queen of  Roland Garros 12 months ago, Andy Murray looked every inch a  seasoned claycourt campaigner during a 6-2 6-2 6-1 first-round  demolition of Argentine dangerman Juan Ignacio Chela.

Ivanovic had said she would listen to U.S. rock band Kings  of Leon for inspiration before the match but instead of an  uplifting track, she must have chosen the song “Crawl” and taken  the message to heart in a sluggish 7-6 6-3 win over Sara Errani.

The Serb stepped on court with her troublesome right knee  strapped up with black tape and within the opening seconds of  the match, when she was pushed from corner to corner by Errani  in a 22-shot rally, Ivanovic knew she was in for a long workout.

“I kept my composure even when I was making a few mistakes.  I knew I just had to work my way slowly into the match,”  Ivanovic, who converted only five of her 20 break point chances,  told reporters.

“I just was happy to use the chances I had and finally win.”

Although she is unlikely to dwell on her below-par  performance yesterday, Ivanovic was delighted to be back at the  scene of her greatest triumph.

“There were a lot of memories that were dormant and they  awaken, walking on the court,” she said after registering only  her third win on her favourite surface this year.

“This morning when I was warming up they were playing  highlights (of last year’s final) on the big screen. You always  get a little bit excited watching that.”

Unfortunately for 2004 men’s champion Gaston Gaudio, there  was very little to get excited about. Handed a wildcard into the Paris draw since his ranking has plummeted to 359th, he was bounced out 6-3 6-4 6-1 by Czech 18th seed Radek Stepanek.

“It’s a pain in the neck to have lost today for this is a  tournament that I love,” summed up Gaudio.

Until this year, the highlight of Murray’s claycourt career  had been a third-round performance here in 2008. Yesterday, the  British third seed took the first steps towards improving on  that showing by outwitting and out-hitting Chela.

“I wasn’t expecting to play that well and it was a bit  surprising,” said the Briton, who hit 55 clean winners.

Two former world number ones who are in the twilight of  their careers also slid into round two.

55-ACE BARRAGE

Lleyton Hewitt had to duck and dive for almost four hours as  he saw 55 aces whizz by him but found a way to send lofty Croat  Ivo Karlovic crashing to earth in a 6-7 6-7 7-6 6-4 6-3 win.

Marat Safin began his final French Open campaign before  retiring at the end of the year with a 6-4 6-4 6-4 victory over  Russian-born Frenchman Alexandre Sidorenko.

Standing at 2.08 metres, 26th seed Karlovic has enjoyed  putting Hewitt in the shade in each of their three previous  meetings, most notably in the first round at Wimbledon in 2003  when the Australian was the defending champion.

Yesterday, the 50th-ranked Hewitt came back from two sets  down for the fifth time in his career to cut Karlovic down to  size.

Despite winning more than eight games on aces alone,  Karlovic was four thunderbolt serves shy of equalling the  all-time record of American Ed Kauder, who fired 59 in 1955.

While Hewitt was happy to prolong his stay on court to lap  up the applause of the cheering fans, France’s Mathilde  Johansson was looking for a place to hide after she blew eight  match points in a 2-6 6-2 10-8 defeat by Vitalia Diatchenko.

“At the moment, I just feel like running away. But we all  make mistakes and this is an experience I’ll be able to use for  my future grand slam tournaments,” said the 24-year-old.

There will be no more tournaments for Emilie Loit, however.  The Frenchwoman announced she was hanging up her rackets for  good following a 4-6 6-4 6-1 defeat by Swiss Timea Bacsinszky.

Amelie Mauresmo’s French Open dreams once again turned to  dust when she was beaten 6-4 6-3 by Germany’s Anna-Lena  Groenefeld.   Asked if she had cracked under pressure, the world number 16  said: “Don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.”

Spanish eighth seed Fernando Verdasco compounded a miserable  day for the home nation by humbling Florent Serra 6-2 6-1 6-4  before French number one Gilles Simon produced a stirring  comeback to beat American Wayne Odesnik 3-6 7-5 6-2 4-6 6-3.