Sampras, 26, who has won 10 Grand Slam singles titles but has never been able to impose his powerful serve-and-volley tennis on the deadly slow red clay courts at Roland Garros, came through 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in a tough all-American showdown with Todd Martin.

It was a match which would not have looked out of place on hard-court -- although Sampras stressed that he felt he could now decipher the fine line between being patient and being aggressive.

Hingis dropped serve on the day's first game on the Centre Court but quickly climbed into the driving seat to chalk up a 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 win.

The seeds sent looking for the nearest exists were Greg Rusedski, Jonas Bjorkman and Karol Kucera in the men's singles while Lisa Raymond parted company with the women's event. Rusedski, unable to make theworld's biggest serve, pay dividends on an unhelpful surface, celebrated his new world number four status by going down 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to Belgian Davis Cup player Johan Van Herck.

Sweden's seventh seeded Davis Cup hero Jonas Bjorkman also went out in straight-sets -- but to a former French Open champion. Thomas Muster, who won the title in 1995, was given a tremendous ovation by the crowd after outslogging the Swede to score an impressive 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 victory.

Muster next plays the winner of the all-German clash between Nicolas Kiefer and Tommy Haas.

Ninth-seeded Kucera, semi-finalist at the Australian Open and at Hamburg, started well but then went off the boil against Todd Woodbridge who scored a 1-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 win.

The only major surprise in the women's event came when Tatiana Panova of Russia notched up a straight sets 6-3, 6-4 win over 16th-seeded American Lisa Raymond to reach a second round clash against Chanda Rubin.