Switzerland's Roger Federer returns the ball to American Sam Querrey. (Michel Spingler/Associated Press)

Top-ranked Roger Federer was preaching patience Monday after his first-round victory at Roland Garros included a hiccup early in the first set.

Federer, bidding for his first French Open victory — the only Grand Slam missing from the Swiss tennis player's collection — downed Sam Querrey of the United States 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.

Federer was broken once early in the first set, but he managed to win five times on Querrey's serve.

"Once I got settled I played a little bit more better," said Federer, the 12-time major champion attempting to become only the sixth man to complete a career Grand Slam. "I was able to create myself a few opportunities against his serve, which was sort of good.

"Give me a few days now again to practice, and hopefully I can play a bit better the next match."

Despite seven losses this season — more than he lost in each of the 2004, '05 and '06 campaigns — Federer has played well on clay.

He won his only title of the year on clay in Estoril, Portugal, when Nikolay Davydenko retired from the final with a leg injury. Federer then reached the final at the Monte Carlo Masters and the Hamburg Masters, losing both times to Rafael Nadal.

"I've played well all clay-court season long," Federer said. "Didn't have many hiccups really, and I have plenty of matches. That was my goal as well. By playing Estoril, I was hoping to get that before Paris."

Nadal, who is undefeated at Roland Garros, has beaten Federer in the last two French Open finals and in the 2005 semifinals. He was to start his quest for a fourth straight French Open title against Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil on Tuesday.

Querrey was making his second appearance at the French Open after being eliminated in Round 1 a year ago.

"He's an up-and-coming player who's got a good serve and big shots," Federer said.

Jankovic claws way to victory

A little luck helped a resilient Jelena Jankovic prevail in her first-round match against Monica Niculescu at the French Open on Monday.

Leading 4-2 in the first-set tiebreaker, last year's French Open semifinalist had a drop volley hit the top of the net and roll along the tape before falling into the opposite court.

Jankovic later rebounded from a tough start to the second set to score a 7-6 (3), 6-2 win over Niculescu, who was making her debut at Roland Garros.

"She hit quite good drop shots and I got a little bit confused, because, first of all, I didn't know her game, I didn't know how she plays, and I didn't know what to expect from her," Jankovic said from Paris. "And then I started making some errors and I lost my rhythm a little bit."

In the second set, Jankovic lost her serve after breaking her Romanian opponent in the opening game, then dominated rest of the match. But she had more trouble in the first set, despite jumping out to a 3-0 lead.

"She plays slice and she plays high balls and she plays drop shots and all the different kind of shots," Jankovic said of Niculescu. "She's a different player than the other girls, and it took time for me to get used to that because I never played against her before."

Niculescu was coming off a first-round defeat in her debut at the Australian Open, the first major tournament for the 20-year-old.

Young Russian advances

In other women's action, American Venus Williams was nearing a straight sets win before her serve abandoned her. She would need three sets to dispatch 93rd-ranked Tzipi Obziler of Israel, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, the youngest person in the singles tournament at 16, advanced to the second round by beating Maria Emilia Salerni of Argentina 6-1, 6-1. No. 12 Agnes Szavay of Hungary and No. 32 Karin Knapp of Italy also advanced. No. 10 Patty Schnyder also won her first-round match.

Marco Baghdatis, the No. 17 seed and 2006 Australian Open runner-up, lost to Simone Bolelli of Italy 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 in the first round of the men's draw.

Tommy Robredo, the 12th-seeded player, rallied to beat Guillermo Coria 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 on centre court.

Coria, who served a seven-month doping ban in 2001-02, was playing at Roland Garros for the first time in three years. He missed much of the past two seasons with a right shoulder injury and had played in only four tour-level events since the 2006 U.S. Open.

The Czech Republic's Tomas Berdych, ranked No. 11, enjoyed a laugher over Australian Robert Smeets 6-1, 6-0, 6-0.

Other seeds losing on Monday were No. 23 Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko and Guillermo Canas, the 29th-seed Argentine.

With files from the Associated Press