Shahar Pe'er was at her best on Tuesday, thoroughly dominating her competition on the way to an easy opening-round win at the French Open. The Israeli teenager thrashed Ukrainian Olga Savchuk 6-1, 6-1 in 42 minutes to set up a second-round encounter with rising Bulgarian star Tsvetana Pironkova.
Pe'er won her first two service games to love and lost a mere three points during the match's first five games to take total control of Savchuk, who at 104 in the world is ranked 78 spots behind Pe'er. The No. 31 seed benefited from Savchuk's struggles, which included a poor service game (six double faults) and 30 unforced errors. Pe'er went on to win 75 percent of the match's points (51-17).
Pironkova (86), who scored a 6-3, 6-2 win over Spain's Maria Sanchez Lorenzo (67) in the first round, has defeated Pe'er in straight sets in both of their previous meetings. Their most recent match came in the quarterfinals at last year's Istanbul Cup, an event Pe'er won this year.
On Wednesday, Anna Smashnova returns to action, this time in doubles play. Smashnova will team with Virginie Razzano of France to take on the No. 15 seeds, Eleni Daniilidou of Greece and Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues.
Harel Levy, who failed to reach the main draw via qualifying, will also be in doubles action. Levy and Australian partner Stephen Huss meet a pair of local wildcards, Jeremy Chardy and Josselin Ouanna.
Andy Ram and Yoni Erlich, who were seeded a career-best fifth at the event, learned that they will open against the Italian pair, Daniele Bracciali and Filippo Volandri. That match is tentatively set for Thursday.
