In round two of the girls' singles at the Roland Garros Jr Championships, Jessica Yang (ITF 25) was facing No. 10 seed Elena Bogdan (ITF 12), the same player who had ousted her from this year's Aussie Open in three sets. On clay this time, however, the Romanian ran away with a 6-1, 6-3, victory to propel herself into the third round.

Several key match statistics were telling, as Jessica managed to win only 48 and 35% of the points on 1st and 2nd serves respectively, compared to her opponent's 60 and 62%. Although she broke the Romanian's serve twice in the match, Jessica unfortunately lost her serve six times in all. Moreover, Elena Bogdan held a clear 64 – 43 advantage in terms of total points won which, when all put together, was an uphill task that was rather difficult to overcome in the end.

That said, the second set alone lasted close to an hour's play, most certainly indicative of that fact that our Hong Kong number one did not go down without at least a fight.

In the girls' doubles, Jessica Yang and her Moroccan partner, Nadia Lalami, went out in the first round against the German-Swiss combo of Linda Berlinecke and Nicole Riner in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3.

Berlinecke and Riner put over 85% of their first serves in play and won over 75% of those points, broke serve three times, and did not face a single break point throughout the match. The receiving points won stat seemed to have been the Achilles heel for the HK-Moroccan pair, as they managed to win only 13 of 49 points (27%) in that department.

The German-Swiss duo will now face No. 6 seeds Jade Curtis of Britain and Nikola Hofmanova of Austria for a place in the quarterfinals.

In the first round against Holland's Lesley Kerkhove, Jessica Yang led 5-1 in the opening set at one stage only to see the Dutch world No. 40 mount a mini fight-back of sort to take proceedings to 5-3 before Jessica steadied herself to grab the opening set, 6-3.

In the second set, Kerkhove, out of nowhere, jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Jessica found her groove once again, as she went on to take the next five games. Serving for the match at 5-3, 40-0, the Dutch girl saved three match points to break serve to say alive whilst still trailing 5-4. Luckily, the HK junior number one also conjured her own break of serve in the ensuing game to finish off the match in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, before her opponent could muster another reprieve.

The last player from Hong Kong to reach the second round or better at the Roland Garros Junior Championships was Venise Chan, who beat France's Victoria Larriere, 7-6(5), 6-2, in the first round of the girls' singles in 2006 before she was upended by then world No. 1 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in round two.

In 2005, Martin Sayer stunned world No. 2 Leonardo Mayer of Argentina, 6-3, 6-4, in the opening round of the boys' singles before losing to the Slovak Republic's Lucas Lacko, who was ranked as high as No. 3 in the world earlier that season. The top two seeds that year in Paris were Britain's Andy Murray and USA's Donald Young, neither of whom ended up winning it.

Meanwhile in this year's boy's singles, India's Yuki Bhambri (ITF 6), the No. 4 seed, was sent packing, 6-2, 6-1, in the opening round by France's Guillaume Rufin, while China's Wu Di (ITF 34), who trains under the tutelage of former Hong Kong resident Lu Ling, also went in the opening round with a 6-4, 2-6, 3-6, loss to Chile's Cristobal Saavedra-Corvalan.

Indonesia's Christopher Rungkat (ITF 40) also struggled on the slow red clay, as he was eliminated by Belgian 16th seed David Goffin in straight sets, 6-0, 6-3, in the first round.

Reigning Australian Open Junior Champions Bernard Tomic (ITF 2) and Arantxa Rus (ITF 2), however, are still very much alive even though clay is apparently not their most favoured surface.

See the official RG 2008 website's brief guide on the Grand Slams.

Results
2008 Roland Garros Junior Championships (Grade A)
Paris, France
31 May - 8 Jun 2008

GIRLS' SINGLES

First Round
Jessica Yang (HKG) d. Lesley Kerkhove (NED) 6-3 6-4

Second Round
(10)Elena Bogdan (ROM) d. Jessica Yang (HKG) 6-1 6-3

GIRLS' DOUBLES

First Round
Linda Berlinecke/Nicole Riner (GER/SUI) d. Jessica Yang/Nadia Lalami (HKG/MOR) 6-3 6-3