Tennis-Open-Uneasy Henin through to French Open third round

— -- By Julien Pretot PARIS, June 1 - Defending champion Justine Henin-Hardenne saved three set points before beating unheralded Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus 6-2 7-5 to reach the third round of the French Open on Thursday. The Belgian, who also won the tournament in 2003 and was celebrating her 24th birthday, looked unusually nervous on the centre court and made 22 unforced errors in the opening set as light rain fell. Playing far from her best, Henin struggled with her first serve and was broken in the third game on a double fault. Baseliner Yakimova, who should have posed no threat to the former world number one, was content with keeping the ball in play, waiting for her opponent to falter. "I was not in a mood to give a present on my 24th birthday," said Henin. "It was tough, the conditions were really bad. I was struggling to remain aggressive. Sometimes I was in bad positions," she added. "Fortunately, it's in these moments that I hit my best shots." The same pattern was repeated in the second set, with the Belarussian sensing Henin's nerves and trying to force a decider. She broke for the fourth time of the match to open a 5-4 lead, only for Henin to save three set points, the last one with a fine drop shot. The Belgian then steeled her nerves to wrap the contest on her first match point after one hour and 39 minutes. She will meet either France's Alize Cornet or Italian Tathiana Garbin in the next round.