Henin was appearing at her first Roland Garros since 2007 following her spell in retirement and beat Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova 6-4, 6-3, while Nadal eased past French teenager Gianni Mina 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.

But Russian ninth seed Safina had a day to forget, as the former world number one fell 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 to Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm — the event’s oldest female match-winner since Virginia Wade in 1985.

Men’s sixth seed Andy Roddick came through a five-setter to beat Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen 6-2, 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 and there were also wins for Lleyton Hewitt and Spanish seeds David Ferrer and Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Henin, the number 22 seed, is bidding for her fifth Roland Garros title after stepping away from tennis on the eve of the 2008 tournament.

The 27-year-old Belgian cut short her retirement at the beginning of the year and will now face Czech Klara Zakopalova in the second round.

"I never expected to be back here again on this court," said Henin after taking her first steps on Court Philippe Chatrier since she overwhelmed Ana Ivanovic in the 2007 final.

Four-time champion Nadal saw off nine break points against 18-year-old wild card Mina, who was making his Grand Slam debut, as he breezed into a second-round meeting with Argentina’s Horacio Zaballos.

"My goal is always to play my best tennis. I would love to come back here every year as defending champion but that’s impossible," said the Spanish world number two, who lost his title to Roger Federer last year after a fourth-round defeat against Robin Soderling.

The unexpected star of the day was Date Krumm, a semi-finalist in 1995, who will meet Australian wildcard Jarmila Groth in round two after seeing off a sour-tempered Safina, whose season has been hampered by a lower back injury.

"Three weeks ago I injured my calf and to play against Safina on (Court) Suzanne Lenglen, I was already happy just to be here," said Date Krumm, who came back from 4-1 down in the third set despite injuring her calf.

Safina, 24, who was just three when Date Krumm mader her debut here in 1989, committed 17 double faults in the match.

"I couldn’t work on my serve until I came here. I was serving really good at the beginning but I got tight and lost the motion and that’s when I started to make more double faults," she said.

Former world number one Maria Sharapova, the Russian 12th seed, brushed off 18-year-old compatriot Ksenia Pervak to win 6-3, 6-2, while French 13th seed Marion Bartoli won 6-2, 6-3 against Italy’s Maria Elena Camerin.

In the men’s draw Roddick will face Slovenia’s Blaz Kavcic for a place in the last 32 after his five-set ordeal against Nieminen on Philippe Chatrier.

The big-hitting American skipped the entire claycourt season for what he called "personal reasons" and had to dig deep before eventually overcoming his wily 28-year-old opponent in three hours and 19 minutes.

"I’ve been pretty good at sticking around. The majority of the matches I win aren’t pretty," said Roddick. "But I’ve made a career out of that."

Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, the seventh seed, eased past Russia’s Igor Kunitsyn 6-4, 6-2, 6-2, but Argentine 26th seed Juan Monaco fell 7-6 (8/6), 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 to Slovenian qualifier Grega Zemlja, the world 141.

Ninth seed Ferrer triumphed 6-1 6-3 6-1 over Frenchman David Guez, with Ferrero, the number 16 seed, a 6-4 6-3 6-1 winner against Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas, but 18th seed Sam Querrey of the USA lost in four sets to countryman Robby Ginepri.

Australia’s Hewitt, the 28th seed, took his place in the last 64 by beating France’s Jeremy Chardy 7-5, 6-0, 6-4 in a match that ended with a dramatic rainstorm after three days of blazing heat in Paris.

It didn’t translate into lower scoring for Woods, who made two bogeys and was tied with South Korean Yang Yong-Eun as they began the back nine at the wind-swept Hazeltine National Golf Club.

The duo made the turn three strokes ahead of the field.

Under hot muggy conditions, Woods parred the first three holes before making bogey on the par-3 fourth hole and then doing it again on No. 8.

Woods, who started the day with a two-shot lead, and Yang, hoping to become Asia’s first major championship winner, were paired together in the last group of the year’s final major tournament.

It is a chance for Woods to capture his 15th career major championship and become the first wire-to-wire winner at a PGA Championship since he turned the trick in 2000 by beating Bob May in a playoff.

But Woods is going to have to go lower on the back after three-putting the fourth hole for the second straight day. He missed a four-foot putt to the right side of the hole to post a bogey.

Yang, who beat Woods in 2006 at the HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai, parred the hole to tie Woods for the lead but he fell back with a bogey of his own on the fifth.

Yang’s approach on five sailed right of the green, landing in the rough just in front of the gallery. He then had a difficult chip over a bunker to reach the green.

There is a long list of challengers and would-be major champions who have wilted under Woods’s final-round glare but Yang would not go away.

Yang even got lucky with his tee shot on the par-four sixth as his ball appeared to be going out of bounds but it hit the foot of a course marshall and stayed in.

Yang parred his first two holes before making a birdie on the par-5 third to slowly make up ground on Woods.

Yang started the day tied with Padraig Harrington but the Irishman appeared to fall out of contention with an eight on No. 8 to go to minus-one after staring the day at six-under.

American Sean O’Hair was the first one into the clubhouse played like he had an early flight to catch, covering the 18 holes in just two hours, 13 minutes and shooting a one-over 73 to finish at 14-over 302.

"They told me to slow down on the front nine because I was catching up to the green crew," said O’Hair, who played along because South African Richard Sterne pulled out Saturday.

Over half a centimetre of rain fell overnight and heavy thunderstorms expected early Sunday did not materialize as the main storm blew through quickly.

Playing conditions were still difficult Sunday because of high humidity strong winds and light drizzle.

"It is more like British Open weather," said American Scott McCarron. "You got to have a lot of patience."

The 2005 PGA champion, Phil Mickelson, finished with a disappointing four-over 76. The 39-year-old left-handed American skipped this year’s British Open to care for his wife and mother, who have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Mickelson had five bogeys, three birdies and 10 pars in his round Sunday.

"Well the last two weeks have been very frustrating with my play," said Mickelson, who finished at 12-over 300. "I haven’t putted the best for a little while now.

"It is going to take a little more time. But at least I feel like I have a little bit better direction."

Woods and Yang tied at the turn in PGA Championship

The 20-year-old Stade Francais player, who is the cousin of Arsenal defender William Gallas, has been hospitalized with psychiatric problems after lying over an alleged assault outside the team hotel in Wellington — following France’s 14-10 defeat against the All Blacks on June 20.

Fillon told Key in a letter: "France’s tour of New Zealand has been marked by the unacceptable behavior of one of our players.

"Our two countries share the culture of rugby. This sport has always allowed us to meet and to share a mutual respect. I hope that these sentiments will continue after this regrettable affair."

Bastareaud’s claim that he was attacked by four or five men outside the hotel shocked New Zealand and led to an apology from Key.

But video evidence showed the player had entered the hotel on Sunday morning uninjured and had gone into his room 25 minutes later.

Meanwhile, Bastareaud, who was admitted to hospital on Monday, received support from the French players’ union Provale.

"We, professional rugby players, lend our friendship and support to Mathieu Bastereaud and his family," Provale said in a statement.

French Rugby Federation (FRF) president Pierre Camou also offered his apology to New Zealand over the affair that blighted France’s All Black tour.

A FRF statement declared: "To be an international carries with it responsibility as a representative of your country and your federation.

"The FRF is shocked that one of the French team has lied. The New Zealand nation and the world of rugby can legitimately feel wounded by the player’s initial statements which have also tarnished the image of French rugby."

Bastareaud returned home early from the tour to treat his facial injuries as the rest of the French squad travelled on to Australia and on his return issued an apology saying he believed he had to tell the truth following the media furore.

He said that instead of being assaulted he had in fact sustained the bruises to his face after a drunken fall in his hotel room.

Bastareaud, who had been due to go on a family holiday to the Caribbean this week, is expected to stay in hospital for at least a fortnight under observation.

French PM issues apology over Bastareau

And while the Yankees have made waiting until the latter stages of games worth their fans’ while for several weeks, Saturday turned out to be the exception in that regard, too.

The Yanks appeared primed for another cream-pie comeback by scoring twice to tie in the eighth inning, but Mariano Rivera coughed up four runs on three hits – and was pulled from the game in the ninth – in an ugly 9-7 loss to the Rays at the Stadium.

For good measure, the Yanks then fell short of another cardiac bid in the bottom half. They scored twice against reliever Dan Wheeler on Mark Teixeira’s two-run double – and had three cracks with the tying run at the plate – before the rally stalled with lefty Yankee castoff Randy Choate retiring Robinson Cano for the final out.

Sabathia lasted at least eight innings for the fifth time in eight starts, but homers in the middle innings by Ben Zobrist and Willy Aybar had Tampa ahead, 5-3, entering the home eighth. But Teixeira belted a leadoff homer off reliever Grant Balfour, his 17th, to tie Tampa’s Carlos Pena for the AL lead. The Yanks proceeded to load the bases on two walks sandwiched around Cano’s single, before late-inning hero Melky Cabrera barely legged out a potential double-play ball for a 5-5 tie.

But Rivera (0-2, 3.47) was immediately tagged for a leadoff triple by Zobrist and RBI singles by Joe Dillon and B.J. Upton – before Joe Girardi replaced him with Phil Coke – as the Yanks (32-23) suffered just their sixth loss in 23 games. Coke allowed another run-scoring single by Carl Crawford and Alex Rodriguez booted Aybar’s grounder for an error for a 9-5 Tampa lead.

Price, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 entry draft out of Vanderbilt, was charged with three runs (one earned) on just two hits and five walks over 5 2/3 innings.

He had made his anticipated big-league debut Sept. 14 of last season with 5 1/3 strong innings of relief against at the old Yankee Stadium. The 6-foot-6 lefty then emerged as a rising star out of the bullpen during the 2008 postseason, closing out Boston in Game 7 of the ALCS and then the Phillies in Game 2 of the World Series.

Still, the Rays stashed Price in the minors to start this season, limiting him to no more than five innings in any of his eight starts for Triple-A Durham. He was recalled on May 25 and posted his first regular-season win last Saturday with 11 strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings against the Twins.

Mariano Rivera rocked by Rays as Yankees lose ugly one at Stadium

In fact, Van Gundy admitted Friday that giving Nelson extended minutes for his first game in four months was a mistake, but the Orlando Magic head coach refused to accept his starting point guard’s "excuse" for why Alston played so poorly.

"The mistake I made was leaving (Nelson) in too long," Van Gundy said the day after the Lakers’ 100-75 victory to open the NBA Finals. "We’ve got to give Jameer shorter stints. I may have overplayed him and he got tired. As far as Rafer, having that affect his play in the second half, that’s up to him. If I’m looking from the outside, that sounds like an excuse to me."

Nelson, sidelined since February after having right shoulder surgery, made his playoff debut in Thursday night’s second quarter, with the Magic leading 24-22. Nelson played all 12 minutes and although he proved that he is healthy, the Lakers outscored Orlando 31-19 in the quarter and seized control of the game.

Alston, who was acquired from Houston when Nelson injured his shoulder, shot 2-for-4 in the first quarter only to miss all five of his shots in the second half.

"I’ll give you a good excuse," a grinning Alston said. "I sat 12 minutes real game time, I sat about 30 minutes real life time. So there’s an excuse.

"It was odd. I mean, I think everyone can see that. That’s unusual to start the game and then you don’t even touch the court in the second quarter. But there’s no pouting, there’s no getting mad, there’s going to be no coach and Alston meeting about it. I’m going to go out here and get ready for Game 2 (tomorrow night) and prepare myself like I have been all playoffs."

The Magic’s problems run deeper than Van Gundy splitting minutes between his two point guards. Orlando made just 23 field goals in the game, or seven more than Kobe Bryant. Dwight Howard shot 1-for-6, Rashard Lewis was 2-for-10 and Hedo Turkoglu was 3-for-11. Orlando’s top three scorers combined for 33 points.

Whether it was Alston or Nelson running the point, Magic players were getting good shots. They just weren’t making any. Orlando was also outrebounded 55-41.

But the difference in Game 1 was Bryant, who set his career scoring mark in the Finals with 40 points, including 36 through three quarters. Bryant, who has lost his last two Finals, is three wins away from his first championship without Shaquille O’Neal. He will go down as one of the greatest players in league history even if the Lakers fall to the Magic. But one more title would cement Bryant’s legacy.

"The last two times we’ve been to the Finals we came up short," Bryant said Friday. "This time around we’re just really locked in.

"I’ve been pacing myself all year waiting for these playoffs to come around. The table is set."

Call it Rafer madness for Magic’s Alston in NBA Finals

The seventh-seeded Kuznetsova, the 2004 US Open champion, dictated the points throughout and prevailed after 74 minutes on Centre Court.

Kuznetsova, 23, overcame a nervous start to snatch the opening set on Safina’s serve with a backhand winner.

She took a decisive lead by breaking for 4-2 in the second set and did not look back, wrapping up the win on her first match point and denying Safina her maiden grand slam title.

Svetlana Kuznetsova eases to French Open title

Pete Carroll, USC’s football coach, spent Saturday admiring the methodical manner by which Fred Patacchia and Kai Barger diced through their respective opponents to claim titles in the 6.0 Lowers Pro and Oakley Pro Junior at Lower Trestles in San Clemente.

Carroll might have rooted for more localized athletes on a day that began with quarterfinals in both contests. But he left no doubt that he’s a fan of pro surfing in general.

“It’s incredible to take such an extraordinary sport and put it into this kind of setting and make it into a competition,” said Carroll, himself a wave rider.

The coach added that he’d like to see professional surfers, who often compete in relative obscurity, receive more mainstream media exposure.

“It would liven up the sporting world, especially in Southern California,” Carroll said. “Everybody’s fascinated by the sport and everybody would love to be able to do it.”

Few do it as well as Patacchia, an ASP World Tour veteran who was competing in the 6.0 Lowers Pro, a high-level qualifying contest, merely because it fit into his schedule.

Before the quarterfinals began, in clean two- to four-foot surf, Patacchia said the contest was meaningless to him but convenient because he was passing through the area en route to Tahiti, site of the next World Tour competition.

Hours later, after he had disposed of Carlsbad’s Ben Bourgeois in the 30-minute final, and after being draped by friends in a Hawaiian flag, Patacchia offered a different viewpoint.

“I just said that so as not to sound too cocky,” he said of his previous comments.

In fact, Patacchia, 27, who is ranked No. 3 in the world, was inspired for his final heat by the performance of Maui’s Barger, 19, who triumphed in a dramatic four-man final to win the Oakley Pro Junior.

“He was just electric out there,” Patacchia said of Barger, the reigning ASP world junior champion.

Patacchia was paid $20,000. Bourgeois, 30, last year’s Lowers Pro champion, earned $10,000 but said he’s not trying to qualify for the World Tour, so the World Qualifying Series points are meaningless to him as well.

However, because the contest carried a six-star prime rating — the highest offered by the ASP for qualifying competitions — it held critical importance for WQS tour competitors aspiring to advance onto the elite circuit.

Only three remained in contention after Friday’s earlier rounds, and on Saturday, Hawaii’s Dusty Payne lost to Patacchia and San Clemente’s Tanner Gudauskas lost to French surfer Tim Boal in the quarterfinals.

San Clemente’s Nathan Yeomans, 27, who has been striving for years to make the World Tour, will vault into the WQS top 10 after his semifinal appearance against Bourgeois.

(The top 15 on the WQS, at season’s end, qualify for the World Tour.)

“It’s been a dream of mine since I don’t even know when,” Yeomans said.

In the final, Patacchia opened with a long right-hander on which he pulled off a series of vertical top turns for a score of 9.17 out of a possible 10.

Bourgeois took a brief lead after adding a 7.93 to his opening 6.17 in the best-two-waves format. But Patacchia later added a 7.67 and ultimately prevailed, 16.84 to 14.10.

Not an especially high-scoring affair but, as Carroll might say, a win is a win.

Hawaiians rule the waves at Lower Trestles

Thirteen years and 1,118 NBA games later, Bryant is still one of the best basketball players in the world, but there’s a lingering question planted in the backdrop as the Lakers begin the NBA Finals tonight against the Orlando Magic: How much longer can their 11-time All-Star produce eye-catching statistics before age and gravity tap him on the shoulder?

The Lakers and their failure to win a championship since 2002 is only one reason their fan base might be feeling a bit edgy. There’s also a sense of urgency because the window for Bryant’s career is only a handful of years from sliding shut.

Think of Bryant, who will be 31 in August, as a Ferrari with a well-tested odometer. Consider that he has already played 340 more NBA games than Michael Jordan when the Chicago Bulls’ star was the same age, a 44% increase that can be traced to several long Lakers playoff runs early in Bryant’s career and his entrance into the NBA immediately after high school. (Jordan waited until after his junior year at the University of North Carolina.)

Bryant continues to post numbers that any fresh-faced 23-year-old would giddily embrace, but, as TV analyst Mark Jackson observed on a recent play where Bryant scored on a routine layup instead of dunking the ball with authority: “Father Time is undefeated.”

Kobe Bryant battles the Orlando Magic and Father Time in NBA Finals

Randy Johnson’s bid for 300 wins was postponed Wednesday night after a series of thunderstorms left the field at Nationals Park unplayable for Johnson’s San Francisco Giants and the Washington Nationals.

At 10:47 p.m. EDT — more than 3 1/2 hours after the scheduled 7:05 p.m. first pitch — Nationals president Stan Kasten announced that the game had been called and would be made up as part of a doubleheader, starting at 4:35 p.m. on Thursday.

“The field is not playable, and that’s the reason we can’t play,” Kasten said after sloshing through masses of standing water in the outfield with the umpires. “We really tried. We were all trying to get it done, but at the end of the night, it’s not worth the risk to our players.”

Johnson will pitch the first game of the doubleheader against Nationals rookie Jordan Zimmermann, the same matchup that had been scheduled for Wednesday night. San Francisco’s Matt Cain will face Ross Detwiler in Game 2.

Because of two Giants off days, Johnson will be pitching on seven days of rest since winning No. 299 last week against the Atlanta Braves. He left the ballpark without speaking to reporters.

“You look at his career, and he’s been through everything,” San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said. “Randy’s fine. I’m sure he’s anxious to pitch, not just because it’s 300.”

The weather was ominous from mid-afternoon, when the tarp was placed on the field before batting practice. It was removed during a break in the storms around 8 p.m., but it was soon put back on when weather radar accurately predicted the imminent arrival of another line of lightning, thunder and rain so dense that the Capitol dome was no longer visible from the upper deck.

Still, Kasten consulted with Giants president Larry Baer and announced at 10 p.m.: “We are going to play this game” — in part because of the history at stake. They had to recant less than an hour later.

“For a player going for a milestone, you want something more optimal,” Baer said. “We can recapture that feeling tomorrow. Under no circumstances do you want to get someone hurt.”

Johnson is attempting to become the 24th pitcher to win 300 games. Before the storms hit, discussions centered on whether the 45-year-old lefty will be the last. Pitch counts, quick hooks and an overall abundance of caution with pitchers have made consistent big-win seasons a rarity.

“He’s going after a tremendous accomplishment that probably we’ll never see again,” Washington manager Manny Acta said. “It’s becoming tougher and tougher.”

Only four pitchers have averaged at least 15 wins over the last six full seasons, and the career leader among those four — Roy Halladay — has only 140 wins at age 32, putting him about a decade away from 300 at his present pace. The only contenders above 200 wins are 46-year-old Jamie Moyer (250), 36-year-old Andy Pettitte (220), 37-year-old Pedro Martinez (214) and 42-year-old John Smoltz (210).

“I think we’ll see it again. It’ll be a while,” Bochy said. “Of course, there’s Moyer. He can pitch until he’s 50, I guess. The way bullpens have evolved in baseball, it makes it more difficult for these starters to get the decisions. They’re not in there when the game’s decided. Randy, if you look at his decisions, and the guys who have won 300, that’s one common denominator that they have. That’s why it’s going to be a lot more difficult.”

Storms postpone Randy Johnson’s bid for 300th win

Door is open for Federer

The reverberations of Nadal’s shocking loss to Soderling are still being felt around the tennis world. Nadal destroyed the Swede three weeks ago in Rome, losing just one game in his straight-sets victory.

Now that the King of Clay has been dethroned in France, the draw has opened up for Roger Federer to finally capture his elusive French Open title and complete the career Grand Slam. Nadal had beaten Federer at Roland Garros each of the last of the last four years.

Federer already had to be feeling fortunate when fourth-seeded Novak Djokovic was defeated by Philipp Kohlschreiber in the third round. Djokovic was Federer’s primary threat in the bottom half of the draw after playing extremely well in the clay-court Masters Series events leading up to the French Open.

But Federer is going to have to increase his intensity if he hopes to win his 14th Grand Slam championship and equal Pete Sampras’ mark. The Swiss star has played uneven tennis and has labored with inconsistent shot-making. The former world No. 1 was severely tested by Jose Acasuso and needed four sets to dispatch Paul-Henri Mathieu. In the fourth round, Federer was in major trouble, rallying from two sets down to post a comeback win over Tommy Haas.

Based on his dominance of Andy Roddick, Federer would have been the beneficiary of more good fortune if the American had taken care of Gael Monfils in the round of 16. Monfils has bounced back from a recent knee injury and the Frenchman receives tremendous crowd support from the partisan Parisian fans.

Federer will have to dig deep again in his quarterfinal match against Monfils, but Roger should rise to the occasion knowing that he needs just three more wins to finally prevail in France.

Fifth-seeded Juan Martin Del Potro looms as an imposing figure that Federer could meet in the semifinals after the Argentine defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. It remains to be seen how the rising star would handle the immense pressure of taking on a legend closing in on history.

Murray’s big opportunity

In the top half of the men’s draw, Soderling’s unlikely run at Roland Garros should come to an end when he faces Nikolay Davydenko in the quarterfinals. The Russian shined in his fourth round win over Fernando Verdasco and is primed to return to the French Open semifinals for the third time since 2005.

The other quarterfinal features an intriguing match between Fernando Gonzalez and Andy Murray. The hard-hitting Chilean has not dropped a set in his first four victories in Paris. But Murray has adroitly blended offensive and defensive tennis to reach the final eight. The No. 3 seed spent some of his formative years training in Barcelona and has always moved well on clay. The Scot has a sizeable opportunity to exploit Nadal’s absence and emerge from the top of the draw.

Safina, Serena on collision course

Dinara Safina remains on a mission to win her first Grand Slam championship. The world No. 1 did not yield more than two games in any of her early-round matches. With the early exits of Venus Williams and defending champion Ana Ivanovic, Safina’s road to the singles final has become far less challenging.

But the top-seeded Russian should not overlook her quarterfinal opponent, Victoria Azarenka. The No. 9 seed beat Safina earlier this year at Indian Wells and has displayed the form that has made her a top-10 player so far in Paris. Safina, though, should be able to use her improved versatility and comfort on clay to move on to the semifinals.

In that match, Safina would play either 20th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova or the “dangerous floater” Maria Sharapova. Sharapova’s conditioning will be critical at this stage of the tournament. The three-time Grand Slam champion, playing in just her second tournament after a nine-month layoff because of a shoulder injury, has been extended to three sets three times in her first four matches in the French Open.

In the bottom half of the women’s draw, Serena Williams can only hope her second week in Paris is less eventful than week one. While Serena, who always seems to receive a cool reception from the spectators at Roland Garros, appeared to be correct in her contention that Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez was dishonest in their controversial match, it’s unlikely that the uproar will win Williams any more French fans.

The No. 2 seed made a statement on the court in rolling past Aleksandra Wozniak in a drama-free fourth-round victory, setting up a match against Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals. Kuznetsova has responded to the guidance she’s been receiving from new coach Larisa Savchenko, winning in Stuttgart and reaching the singles final in Rome, and has the power to match Williams’ barrage of baseline groundstrokes.

Nevertheless, Williams’ mental toughness should be enough to propel her into the semifinals. If she makes it that far, Serena won’t have to face fifth-seeded Jelena Jankovic, who was beaten by Sorana Cirstea in the fourth round. It’s looking more likely that Williams will shine again on another big stage and take on Safina for the women’s championship.

French Open: Breaking down the final rounds