Confident Venus eases into round two in Paris

PARIS, May 29 (Reuters) Former world number one Venus Williams made a confident start to her French Open title bid with a 6-4 6-3 win over Austrian Sybille Bammer in the first round today.

The 11th seed, runner-up at Roland Garros in 2002, dropped serve in the opening game of each set but recovered to win in 69 minutes and set up a match against Emma Laine of Finland.

Playing just her fourth event in 2006 after being sidelined with elbow and arm injuries, Williams struggled a little on serve in blustery conditions and was broken three times by Bammer, the world number 48.

The American's greater power proved too much for Bammer and after saving a break point at 4-2 in the second set, Williams held serve and then repeated the feat two games later to clinch victory.

REUTERS CH RK2255