ESPN 2007 French Open

PARIS -- Venus Williams hit the fastest recorded serve in a women's tour main-draw match, reaching 128 mph at the French Open on Wednesday as she reached the third round of the French Open.

That broke the main-draw mark of 127 mph set by her sister Serena at the Cincinnati hard-court tournament last year. Brenda Schultz-McCarthy hit a serve at 130 mph during qualifying for that same event, and the WTA said Wednesday it considers that to be the fastest serve in women's tennis history.

Venus Williams beat Ashley Harkleroad 6-1, 7-6 (8) in the match.

Top-ranked Justine Henin also reached the third round, easily beating Tamira Paszek of Austria 7-5, 6-1 in a rain-interrupted match. Serena Williams' second-round match against Milagros Sequera was postponed.

Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 U.S. Open champion seeded third at Roland Garros, beat Ekaterina Bychkova of Russia 6-0, 6-3 in the first round. Fifth-seeded Amelie Mauresmo also won, defeating Laura Granville of the United States 6-0, 7-5.

But Anastasia Myskina, the 2004 French Open champion, again lost in the first round. Meghann Shaughnessy of the United States beat the Russian 6-1, 6-0.

Serving at 4-1, 30-love in the second set against Harkleroad, Venus Williams smacked the record-breaking shot. Harkleroad actually got her racket on the ball, making it a service winner rather than an ace.

Williams noticed the readout on the court's radar meter and let out a laugh, cracking her concentration.

"I loved it," she said. "I just lost a bit of focus there, for sure."

Williams won the first set easily and led 5-2 in the second set but was broken twice while serving for the match. In the tiebreak, Harkleroad had five set points.

After the match, all focus was on the fast serve.

"When I was younger, I was always trying to serve harder and harder, and now I'm not trying to serve hard. It comes hard," she said. "So it was unexpected."

Williams will face No. 4 Jelena Jankovic, who defeated Catalina Castano 6-3, 6-3.

Mauresmo, who has struggled at the French Open in the past and never advanced beyond the quarterfinals, was irresistible in the first set.

Granville bounced back to lead 3-0 in the second but Mauresmo was soon back in control, winning five games in a row.

Sharapova wasted seven break points in the first game of the match but then converted both of her opportunities in the third and fifth games.

"My shoulder is still not where I want it to be. It's still not perfect," Sharapova said. "I don't think I've had a more serious injury."

Loit served for the second set at 6-5, but Sharapova earned her second break of the set to force the tiebreak.

Sharapova, a two-time Grand Slam champion who missed nearly two months of the season with a right shoulder injury, returned last week at a clay-court warmup tournament in Istanbul, where she was upset in the semifinals.

"Even without the serve I'm good enough to win many matches," said the 20-year-old Russian, who has never reached the semifinals at Roland Garros but has made the quarterfinals twice.

Loit, a 27-year-old veteran whose best showing at a major was a fourth-round appearance at the 1999 Australian Open, called for a trainer after the third game of the first set. She soon left the court and returned a few minutes later with her left thigh wrapped.

During the break, Sharapova practiced her serves while wearing her warmup jacket as light rain began to fall.

Myskina lost in the first round at Roland Garros a year after winning the title and then reached the fourth round last year. She is 0-7 in tour events since August.

Shaughnessy had lost in the first round at the French Open in the past two years.

Making her comeback after undergoing foot surgery in January, Myskina's challenge lasted only 38 minutes.

"I have to be a realist. I knew I was not going to win but I just wanted to see how my foot would feel," Myskina said. "You can see I'm moving like a big cow now."

No. 7 Ana Ivanovic, No. 9 Anna Chakvetadze, No. 10 Dinara Safina, No. 12 Daniela Hantuchova, No. 13 Elena Dementieva, No. 14 Patty Schnyder, No. 15 Shahar Peer, No. 17 Katarina Srebotnik, No. 20 Sybille Bammer, No. 21 Ai Sugiyama, No. 22 Alona Bondarenko, No. 24 Anabel Medina Garrigues, No. 25 Lucie Safarova and No. 28 Mara Santangelo also won.

Information from Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.