Hicham Arazi defeated the then French Open champion Carlos Moya on centre court in the second round of Wimbledon last year, a wonderfully compelling match replete with great athleticism and shot-making. It offered a marked contrast to the majority of the fare served up by the men, a refreshing change from the staple diet of serve and volley.

Arazi perished in the next round, the grass surface an unforgiving mistress to the baseliner. Ten months on and swapping grass for the more familiar surface of the red clay of Roland Garros, both the Moroccan and Moya move from the periphery of a Grand Slam event to centre stage.

Defending champion Moya lost the opening two sets of his first round match with Austria's Markus Hipfl before arresting the slide and winning the next three. Arazi produced withering groundstrokes to bemuse 15th seed Goran Ivanisevic in four sets, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Moya played dreadfully in the first two sets. Afterwards the Spaniard confessed that being naturally lazy, an early morning start (11.0) did not suit him. However, when he finally woke up, the change was pronounced. Taking the ball earlier and moving with greater fluency, he took control, despite his opponent's courage and determination.

Arazi, a quarter-finalist here for the last two years, was altogether more impressive, conjuring wonderful angles off both forehand and backhand, his exaggerated high follow-through allowing greater top-spin and therefore more scope for acute angles.

Ivanisevic, the second set aside, resembled a piece of paper tossed mercilessly in a strong breeze, never quite knowing where he was going. The Moroccan-born player now meets twice former champion Jim Courier.

The American achieved a straight-sets victory over Alex Calatrava with the minimum of fuss. The same cannot be said of his subsequent press conference where he gave his interrogators a hard time.

When asked whether he could recall the weather when he won at Roland Garros, he replied: "Yeah, I actually don't have amnesia." The journalist was not easily dissuaded: "So what was the weather then?"

"I don't have amnesia, I have memory. I can remember it, yeah." The Monty Pythonesque sketch continued when the question was reiterated.

Courier's answer? "Well the weather was changing all the time." So there you have it. In 1992, his last victory, there was a bit of cloud, a bit of sunshine and the odd shower.

Back on court the spectators shoehorned into Court 10 were treated to a magnificent contest between Morocco's Karim Alami and Tim Henman, with the Englishman eventually prevailing 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

It is Henman's first victory in four attempts at these championships and he demonstrated tremendous resolve and no little ability to break his duck.