Tennis/French Open: One of those days in Paris, muggy and hot, when even the act of stretching for your first afternoon absinthe sends the body into a massive over-reaction of perspiration. For the players, the sun kept the ball lively and the courts quick, usually a factor that brings little complaint.

Tina Pisnik, smiling in disbelief and finding herself in the third round, testified to just that as her opponent, Jelena Dokic, an occasionally confused figure on the circuit, left Paris as the other principle seeds partied on.

It is an enduring fact of life for seeded players that if they get knocked out first week, it's always by a low-ranked player few outside tennis have heard of. It was that way in 1999 that Dokic first made a name for herself at Wimbledon when, as a qualifier ranked at 129, she beat the then world number one, Martina Hingis, first round in the open era's biggest upset and soloed through the draw to the quarter-finals.

Since then, however, her life and career have taken a few twists. Ranked 43 places higher than Pisnik, Dokic took up with Steffi Graf's former coach Heinz Gunthardt last November in the hope of extracting some of the magic that helped the German become perhaps the finest female player the game has seen.

But with the arrival of Heinz came the departure of her father, Damir, a character who has carved quite a colourful niche for himself around the stadium courts of the world. His drink-fuelled cameo roles often involved local constabularies, and his last outburst, conveniently undertaken in the press bar at Wimbledon, included one of his most quoted lines: "Everyone in England is a fascist except the queen."

Now apparently estranged from Damir, the 20-year-old was desperately hoping her game would respond and she could regain last year's singles ranking of fourth in the world. Pisnik, in her 4-6 6-3 6-2 win, has exploded that dream but the match was more about Dokic's inability to keep the ball in court than a roistering young Slovakian outsider on a rampage. Accused afterwards of giving the game away, Dokic was for the second time yesterday padding back shots.

"I think it's hard to say that I gave the match away when you are struggling to get the ball in anyway," she said.

"You cannot say that I gave it away because I was trying but the balls weren't going in and this happens. That's what I lost the match - simple as that. It's the way I'm playing now and the form that I'm in. I went for my shots more than I usually would. That's where the errors crept in."

Hangdog and lacking any touch, Dokic broke Pisnik first game but handed it back before breaking her again in the ninth game and serving for the set 6-4. But rather than tidy up her shot-making, Dokic let it became dramatically more erratic and Pisnik raced to a 5-1 lead in the second before closing out the set 6-3. Fatally, Dokic let two service games slip at the beginning of the third set as Pisnik grabbed a 4-0 lead. Although the 10th seed, smacking the clay with her racquet in frustration, gathered herself, there was little evidence that she could haul herself back into the match. She broke Pisnik to trail 4-2 then unsurprisingly handed it back for 5-2 and Pisnik successfully served for the match.

While there is little evidence that many of the top players actually converse with each other, Dokic might profit from a talk with Jennifer Capriati. Since her father, Stefano, came back to coach her just over two years ago, the American has blossomed. Yesterday the seventh seed was delayed for just 63 minutes by Marion Bartoli.

Lindsay Davenport successfully returned to the locker room after 66 minutes. Less fearful of the media than most players, Davenport voiced concern about her movement.

"On clay it's (movement) just so bad," she said. "I see people get my balls back that on a hard court probably would not come back. They slide 10 feet, they get them back, we start the point again. Unfortunately, I do not have the ability to do that. On clay at the French Open, my goal right now would be to get to the quarters and take it from there. That's the tough match to break through. You know, I don't want to be a perennial quarter-finalist for the rest of my career."

While Venus Williams took the extra set against Evie Dominikovic to secure her third-round place, Kim Clijsters, for the second time, whistled past her opponent, this time Marlene Weingartner. Even for the Belgian number two seed, a 57-minute second-round match to add to her 45-minute first-round win is impressive hustling.