Mauresmo overpowers Kournikova, Venus moves on in Paris

Defending champion Amelie Mauresmo overpowered an inconsistent Anna Kournikova 6-3, 7-5 in the second round of the Paris Open indoor tournament on Wednesday.

The third-seeded Frenchwoman won five straight games as she came back from 5-2 down in the second set to clinch victory against the 20-year-old Russian.

Number one seed Venus Williams crushed compatriot Meilen Tu 6-1, 6-3 to cruise into the third round while American Monica Seles, in a first-round match played earlier, breezed past Austria's Barbara Schett 6-2, 6-3.

"She (Kournikova) really had some highs and lows, which didn't make it easy for me as it was hard to settle into the game and find a rhythm," Mauresmo said afterwards.

"She would play a great point or game and then start making loads of unforced errors," said the 22-year-old, who is ranked eighth in the world.

Despite her roller-coaster performance, Kournikova was still upbeat as she tries to regain her form after a foot injury that kept her away from the courts for eight months last year.

"I kind of couldn't put a few points in a row together. I was winning one point and then losing two. At 5-2, I just couldn't finish it," she said.

"When I just came back at the end of last year, I couldn't understand at all what I was supposed to do on the court... Now I'm starting to get better, I'm playing at least half of the match good -- so it's coming and going," she said.

INJURY-PLAGUED SEASON

However, the 20-year-old, ranked 86th in the world after her injury-plagued season, said she was not 100 percent mentally.

"It'll take me some time to get back that total feeling of control on the court and the mental part of it."

Mauresmo beat Kournikova in three sets in the quarter-finals here last year on the way to her first WTA tournament victory.

A relaxed Venus Williams flattened Tu and then said how much she would like to emulate her sister Serena's title victory of 1999.

"It's great to be here, back where Serena won her first tournament. I've never won in Paris so it would be really great to win here," the top seed after a match which lasted just 50 minutes.

The world number two was in nostalgic mode, reminiscing about her sister's victory, on the same day that she won another tournament in Oklahoma City.

"It was a great time in our lives because we were just doing things on the tour, just starting to get big wins and big tournaments. We were starting to make ourselves very good players," she said.

Williams said she had recovered from the assorted leg injuries which hampered her at the Australian Open and was keen to get her own back on Seles, who defeated her in the quarter-finals in Melbourne.

ROUGH CIRCUMSTANCES

"I'd love to play Monica again. I had some pretty rough circumstances in Australia and I'd like to get another chance," she said.

Seles had few problems beating Schett in straight sets, despite feeling fatigued after a punishing start to the year.

"I'm really spaced out right now. I can't believe I committed to this (playing) schedule," said the fifth-seed.

Seles reached the semifinals at the Australian Open, where she lost to Martina Hingis in three sets, and was beaten by the Swiss again last week in the Pan Pacific Open final in Tokyo.

"I've been playing well but, at the same time, I was disappointed at losing those close matches," said Seles.

The Yugoslav-born American seemed both confident and aggressive in her clash with Schett, ranked 20th in the world.

She repeatedly surprised her opponent with searing returns and powerful shots from the baseline but said afterwards the match had been closer than it looked.

"I was trying to stay really focused. Inside, it was really different," said the former world number one.

BLOCKING OUT

"As a professional, you try to do your best every time you step out onto the court and to block everything else out."

"I'm going to be playing a lot of tournaments this year...I'm trying to get my ranking a little bit higher."

Seles is currently ranked 10th in the world.

The American's last appearance at the Paris Open indoor tournament was in 1993 when she was runner-up to Martina Navratilova after a hard-fought three-set final.

"Yes, it's been a long 10 years," she said.

Seles, ranked number one in the world in 1993, was sidelined from the game for two years after being stabbed in the back by a crazed Steffi Graf fan in Hamburg on April 30.