Unfancied World No.103 Kristina Mladenovic sent former winner Li Na crashing out of her opening match at the French Open on a gloomy Tuesday with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 upset win.
The loss dealt Australian Open champion Li the same fate as her men’s counterpart Stan Wawrinka after the Swiss Melbourne champion was beaten on Monday by Spain’s Guillermo Garcia Lopez. Li went down after local hero Mladenovic spent more than an hour winning the opening set, with the next two each taking half the time.
Off-form World No.2 Li produced 37 unforced errors and lost serve five times. The defeat ends the Chinese player’s clay season with quarter-finals in Madrid and Rome.
The win served as revenge for a first-round loss Mladenovic took against Li in Paris four years ago.
Romanian fourth seed Simona Halep, who broke through in 2013 with six WTA titles, started with a crushing defeat of Alisa Kleybanova 6-0, 6-2. Former Roland Garros winner Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Sofia Shapatava 6-3, 6-1.
Heather Watson struck a blow for British tennis, with the player from the Isle of Man reaching the second round over Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-3, 6-4.
Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova put out Japan’s over-40 miracle Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-3, 0-6, 6-2 while Teliana Pereira of Brazil beat Thai Luksika Kumkhum 4-6, 6-1, 6-1.
In the men’s draw, weekend Dusseldorf finalist Ivo Karlovic continued his clay momentum by upsetting 11th seed Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4).
The 35-year-old Croatian ended the victory with his 22nd ace and struck 46 winners in his assault on the Eastern European young gun tipped as potential title outsider.
