Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova of Russia and Belgium's Justine Henin-Hardenne have advanced to the third round of the French Open tennis tournament in Paris.
Sharapova, the second seed, beat Aravane Rezai of France in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2. The Russian star meets countrywoman Anna Chakvetadze in the third round. Chakvetadze defeated Czech player Klara Koukalova (6-4, 6-3).
Henin-Hardenne is the 10th seed and scored a 6-1, 6-4 win over Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual. The Belgian next plays Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain, who ousted Bulgarian Magdalena Maleeva (6-3, 6-4).
Reigning U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova was another winner Thursday, defeating Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden (6-3, 6-4). Seventh-seed Nadia Petrova of Russia advanced with a straight set win over Severine Beltrame of France (6-1, 6-3).
In men's play, 2004 runner-up Guillermo Coria of Argentina advanced when his opponent, Novak Djokovic of Serbia-Montenegro retired in the third set. Coria next faces Jurgen Melzer of Austria, who beat Russian Mikhail Youzhny (6-3, 6-4, 7-6).
Another Argentine, Guillermo Canas, ousted Albert Montanes of Spain (6-1, 6-3, 6-4). Twelfth seed Nikolay Davydenko of Russia reached the third round with a four set win over Olivier Rochus of Belgium (3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3).
Later, second-seeded Andy Roddick of the United States plays Argentina's Jose Acasuso and third seed Marat Safin of Russia faces Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic.
Some information for this report provided by AP.