PARIS - Only 22, just recently a Grand Slam champion and ranked No. 1 for the first time, Victoria Azarenka is still learning to think like a top player. So trailing by a set and one point from being down 5-0 in the second at the French Open on Monday, Azarenka's mind was filled with "a mix of things." "Sometimes I felt it was not my day," she explained. "Sometimes I thought, 'Yeah, maybe I still fight, I still have a chance.' Sometimes it was like, 'You know what? Forget it. I don't want to do it.'"PARIS (AP) — Top-ranked Victoria Azarenka turned it on when she had to Monday, winning 12 of the final 14 games to reach the second round at the French Open. The Australian Open champion, who took over the No. 1 ranking by winning in Melbourne, struggled for long stretches but came back to beat Alberta Brianti of Italy 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-2. "Sometimes I felt it was not my day. Sometimes I thought, 'Yeah, maybe I still fight, I still have a chance,'" Azarenka said. "Sometimes it was like, you know what? Forget it. I don't want to do it." Brianti, a 32-year-old veteran with one career WTA title, won the first set and then led 4-0 in the second before losing six straight games. Azarenka had 60 unforced errors. "I think it says it all. Bad days happen," Azarenka said. "Unfortunately today I had way more mistakes than I usually do, but, you know, it happens sometimes." Roger Federer managed a less stressful victory, beating Tobias Kamke of Germany 6-2, 7-5, 6-3. The 16-time major champion equaled Jimmy Connors' record of 233 Grand Slam match wins in the Open era. Federer is 233-35 at tennis' top four tournaments. Connors was 233-49. "That's a big one, because that was longevity," Federer said. "Jimmy is obviously one of the greats of all time and was around for 20 years." Later Monday, top-ranked Novak Djokovic was scheduled to play his first match of the tournament. Defending women's champion Li Na also won easily, beating Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-2, 6-1. Last year, Li became the first Chinese player to capture a Grand Slam singles title when she won at Roland Garros. No. 15 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia and No. 19 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia also advanced to the second round. The 15th-seeded player on the men's side, Feliciano Lopez, retired from his match with a side muscle injury after losing the first five games of the first set to Florent Serra. Azarenka was first up in the main stadium, and she didn't look good at the start. In the opening set, she had 28 unforced errors. The top-ranked Belarussian started the 2012 season with a 26-match winning streak. Her first loss came in the quarterfinals at Miami. No top-seeded woman has ever lost in the first round at the French Open since the tournament began to allow foreign entrants in 1925. In the other Grand Slam tournaments, it has happened four times, most recently when Martina Hingis lost in the first round at Wimbledon in 2001.
