By the end of it all, a shaken Pete Sampras looked like the aristocrat who had just been spared the guillotine. Having saved three match points against Frenchman Cedric Kauffman in the fifth set before going on to earn three himself, the Sampras gene finally expressed itself as that ability to seize the moment when it arrives.

It took three bites over three hours and 12 minutes of his first round match but where the rookie professional and tournament qualifier, Kaufmann, failed to convert, the best player of his generation did not.

Certainly there were moments when Sampras looked dreadfully uncomfortable, with over-caution often hindering his natural attacking game and, while the serve-volley approach rescued him several times, the surface betrayed him.

The clay is strictly for sluggers.

Having played qualifiers 21 times and lost only once, in 1989, the number five seed had history on his side but given his run over the last four years on the clay, his confidence was bound to be credit-card thin. Sampras departed in the first round last year, the second round in 1999 and 1998 and the third round in 1997. In fact he had been getting progressively worse until yesterday's turnaround.

"The guy (Kauffman) is in unbelievable shape. He was running like a tiger out there and I was obviously feeling it a bit more," said Sampras.

One seeded player who definitely felt it a bit more was Australian Pat Rafter. The number eight seed threw away a two-set lead as he fell at the first hurdle to compatriot Wayne Arthurs 4-6, 26, 6-3, 7-6, 6-1.

The twice US Open champion and semi-finalist here in 1997 started brightly, his all-action brand of tennis giving him a comfortable two-set lead.

But 30-year-old Arthurs hit back in the third set with some whipped back-hand returns and more solid serving of his own. Arthurs, a first round loser here last year, edged the fourth set 7-5 in a tie-break before pulling away in the fifth.

Rafter tired, his serve lacking penetration, and Arthurs began to pick it off easily on the return. Rafter saved three match points on his own serve at 5-0 down with some daring volleys but it was only delaying the inevitable and left-hander Arthurs duly served out the following game after three hours and 16 minutes, with Rafter clearly suffering.

Andre Agassi had no such grief with Thomas Johansson. With temperatures approaching 30 degrees, decided it was too hot to hang around and advanced untroubled 6-2, 6-3, 7-6 against the unseeded Swede.

Marat Safin, coming back from injury, also won. The second-seeded Russian and crowd favourite bulldozed the first two sets 6-3, 6-3 against Austrian Markus Hipfl, then lost his concentration and the third set before recommencing to win the fourth 6-1.

As if the first day's deliverance of seeded players onto the scrap heap braced the remainder of the draw, day two proved a little less traumatic for the millionaire women of tennis. Indeed, yesterday's unfolding has made Roland Garros a tournament of two halves. The bottom of the draw, littered with the first day's casualties, now contains a mere four seeds - the highest of those, Elena Dementieva at number seven, the others reading 12, 14 and 15.

The top half, with Martina Hingis, Jennifer Capriati, Conchita Martinez and Serena Williams safely through, gives the event a fiercely lop-sided appearance. Williams's straddling of the first hurdle will mean that the Williamses' bad vibe over the exit of Venus hasn't become a family thing. The younger sister survived prolonged booing and jeering from the French crowd to beat unseeded Sarah Pitkowski 6-2, 67(2), 6-1.

Twenty-five-year-old Capriati met Emile Liot for the first time, in a match which was ultimately forgettable. The youngest ever semi-finalist here in 1990 at the age of 14 years and two months, Capriati is coming into the event with the first Grand Slam trophy of the year, the Australian Open, tucked away safely at home in Florida.

Reconciled with both her father Stefano and her racquet, Capriati was murderous in the first set (62) but dropped a gear to trail 5-2 in the second with a curious mixed bag of tennis.

Luckily for the American, Loit froze when she had the whip hand and allowed the fourth seed come back for the second set 7-5.

Hingis, once in her stride, was merciless with Spain's Gala Leon Garcia winning 6-1, 6-0.