Circus girl steals French Open limelight

Aniko Kapros vaulted onto centre stage at the greatest claycourt show on earth on Tuesday when she beat hot favourite Justine Henin in the first round of the French Open.

But the sudden elevation from supporting role to headline act did not faze the daughter of Hungarian circus acrobats Attila and Aniko.

"Very happy, I would say. That's the best words for it, very happy," she beamed after pulling off the shock 4-6 6-1 6-0 victory.

Kapros's sparkling display lit up an otherwise dank, wet second day of the grand slam event and the entertainment did not stop after matchpoint had been won.

The 18-year-old found it easier to explain how she beat the fifth seed than what her parents did for a living.

"My parents have this board in the middle of the stage and my dad jumps and my mom flips and my dad catches her. That's mainly it," she said to hoots of laughter.

"They worked in theatre ... in the circus ... travelling a lot."

The young Aniko spent her childhood touring the world with her acrobat parents and took up tennis in the Bahamas, where she lived for a period.

She was, perhaps, destined for sporting greatness as her mother was a bronze medallist gymnast in the 1972 Olympics before joining the world of clowns, jugglers and lion-tamers.

"I listen to her because she did sports too," the Hungarian said. "In gymnastics it is tough mentally, too.

"She tells me what it was like... how it felt.

"But you can't really compare the two. In gymnastics you go and do your stuff in three minutes -- it just depends on you.

"But in tennis it depends on you and there is somebody on the other side of the net to beat.

"It is a different thing, it can go on for two or three hours."

By stealing the spotlight in Paris on Tuesday she paid back her mother's sacrifice 18 years ago.

Aniko senior had been forced to give up a place at the Lido Parisian revue when she became pregnant with the future tennis star.