ESPN 2007 French Open

PARIS -- Guillermo Canas returned to Grand Slam event play for the first time in exactly two years Tuesday, but you wouldn't have known it if you were sitting at one of the larger courts at Roland Garros.

No. 22 Canas flattened Romania's Victor Hanescu in straight sets on Court 16, an outer court that ranks ninth out of 19 competition courts in terms of seating capacity at 532. It was the same court he was scheduled to play on Monday when most of the schedule was rained out.

Was the choice of that peripheral venue linked to the fact that Canas is still regarded as damaged goods, nine months after his return from a suspension that resulted when he tested positive for a diuretic considered a masking agent? He wouldn't take the bait when quizzed by reporters afterwards.

"I don't care," Canas said. "I prefer to play in the big stadiums and I know that, but I knew there were gonna be a lot of matches. … It was good. It was full of people over there. Not many, but full of people. I hope the next match I play in the big -- or a little bit bigger -- stadium."

Canas reached the quarterfinals here in 2002 and again as a top 10 player in 2005 -- his best performances in a Slam -- shortly before his convoluted case began wending its way through the arbitration system.

In the most recent twist, the Court of Arbitration for Sport [CAS] upheld his 15-month suspension, which it reduced from the original two years imposed by an ATP tribunal, after being compelled to review the sanction by the Swiss Federal Tribunal. It was the first time an athlete had succeeded in getting a suspension sent back to the lower court.

The 29-year-old Argentinan eventually hopes to get back some part of his lost earnings -- both forfeited prize money and something representing his potential earnings during his suspension.

"In a nutshell, I think what CAS says is not what the (Swiss) supreme court is asking," Canas told Spanish reporters, then referred them to his lawyer for further detail. "For me, I want to focus on this tournament."

Canas contends he ingested the banned diuretic accidentally at a tournament in Acupulco when his prescription cold medication was inadvertently swapped with a coach's prescription for hypertension medicine by a tournament worker who brought them from outside the event.

PARIS -- Russia's 12th-ranked Nadia Petrova said she has scheduled an MRI to try to diagnose a back injury that contributed to her second consecutive first-round ouster at the French Open. Petrova grimaced as she received treatment on the court during the 5-7, 7-5, 6-0 loss to Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic Tuesday.

The upset wasn't as shocking as Petrova's early departure last year, which came on the heels of three straight clay-court titles. She missed the middle of the 2006 season with injuries and has played unevenly in 2007, although she won an indoor championship in Paris and reached the final on green clay at Amelia Island before falling to France's Tatiana Golovin.

The plain-spoken Petrova didn't try to hide her feelings.

"Couldn't get worse, huh?" Petrova said Tuesday. "I just really hope at the moment that it's not that serious, and I'm able to play the grass-court season, because I missed it last year and I don't want to miss it again."

Petrova laughingly interrupted a reporter who reminded her she was a favorite coming into this tournament last year. "Right, and this year least favorite," Petrova said, then turned serious.

"Sometimes if you have less publicity and less people talking about you, you have a better chance to focus on your own things and let everything behind," she said. "I wasn't playing as well as last year on clay, but you know, you can always make a turn around … very disappointing.''

PARIS -- Vania King walked into her informal post-match interview carrying a small bowl of cherries, which definitely wasn't symbolic of her day. The 74th-ranked King lost a tough first-round match to the WTA's tallest regular, Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekhistan, in three sets.

At nearly 6 feet 3 inches tall, Amanmuradova towers over the 5-foot-5 King, but that wasn't what foiled the Californian. King said she tensed up on key points and couldn't take advantage of her opponent's erratic game. Bad luck intervened on set point in the first, when a bad call on King's good shot prompted a replay of the point. And King is nursing a slight back sprain, although she still plans to play doubles.

But King, 18, said she feels she's making incremental progress on her least familiar surface. She also lost here in the first round last year less than two months before she turned pro. "I'm moving much better than I did last year, but I'm not used to sliding or covering that much court," King said. "Last year I was three steps slow, and it's one step this year, so next year is the year."

King's fellow American Shenay Perry fared better, dispatching France's Olivia Sanchez in a 36-minute third set held over from Monday's washout. Perry said she's learning to love clay; her chief vulnerability at the moment is an aching right knee, probably due to cartilage damage. Perry said the pain comes and goes and she's received frustratingly divergent advice from doctors, leading her to put off surgery for the moment.

After reaching the third round at Roland Garros and the fourth round of Wimbledon last year, the 22-year-old, 71st-ranked Perry is routinely included in a group of younger U.S. women toiling in the top 100 without immediate prospects for a breakthrough. She admitted the talk has become tiresome.

"The game has changed so much, the depth has changed, the countries are different, the caliber of play is different," Perry said. "I think the question will be answered sooner than later, but people have to wait for the question to be answered. People have to realize tennis is changing, not American tennis."