Dominique rules the roost as Davenport sinks out of contest

The Belgian celebrated her 27th birthday with one of the biggest wins of her career. She has not made it past the third round here in eight previous appearances at Roland Garros.

Van Roost’s win over the Australian Open champion earned her a second-round meeting with 17-year-old Spanish qualifier Marta Marrero.

The teenager, playing in her first Grand Slam event, surprised experienced Romanian Irina Spirlea 6-3 6-4.

Van Roost broke Davenport’s serve three times in the first set — but the American broke back each time and then rolled through the tie-breaker to take the set in 59 minutes.

Van Roost won the second set 6-4 as she moved the sluggish and error-prone Davenport around the court. She continued to control the decisive set to win in two hours, 18 minutes.

Davenport, who has never won the Roland Garros title, quit the Italian Open with a back injury that also caused her to skip last week’s Madrid WTA Tour event. She underwent treatment at courtside during the second set but played on.

Van Roost burst into tears at courtside after the match.

In the men’s event, third-seeded Swede Magnus Norman, the leader of the ATP Champions Race, breezed past French qualifier Thierry Guardiola 6-4 6-4 6-0 in his first match.

Seventh-seeded Thomas Enqvist was another early Swedish winner — racing to a 6-2 6-0 6-0 win over Christophe Rochus of Belgium in 66 minutes while Germany’s Tommy Haas advanced when Chilean Marcelo Rios quit after Haas had won the first two sets 6-3 6-2.

Rios was hampered by a long-standing leg injury and said: “My legs don’t respond like they used to. I’m not strong enough. If you aren’t feeling 100 per cent there is no point in playing.”

Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia, the 14th seed, also progressed with a quickfire 6-3 6-2 6-1 win over Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman while Spanish clay court specialist Albert Costa eased past former Wimbledon finalist Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia 6-3 6-3 6-0.

Two-time US Open champion Patrick Rafter of Australia, continuing his comeback from a shoulder injury, repeatedly rushed the net as he downed Italian slow court expert Gianluca Pozzi 6-3 6-1 6-1 in one hour, 35 minutes. Rafter was a semi-finalist here in 1997.

Marc Rosset of Switzerland, the former Olympic gold-medallist, was another first-round winner, beating Byron Black of Zimbabwe 7-5 7-5 6-0 while rising Argentine star Gaston Gaudio beat Arnaud Di Pasquale of France 6-2 6-3 6-2.

Play started on schedule after the heavy rain that washed out play on Tuesday disappeared.