Another day on the clay at Roland Garros, another reigning Australian Open champion bites the red dust.
Li Na lost her first Grand Slam match since winning the title in Melbourne, falling to Kristina Mladenovic of France 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 on Tuesday. The loss came a day after men’s Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka was eliminated in the first round.
This is the first time at any Grand Slam tournament that the men’s and women’s singles champions from the previous major lost in the first round. The last reigning Australian Open women’s champion to lose in the first round at the French Open was Lindsay Davenport in 2000.
On Monday, Wawrinka lost to 41st-ranked Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 6-0.
Li, who won the title here in 2011 and is seeded second this year, ended up with 37 unforced errors on a cool and overcast day at Roland Garros. Mladenovic had only 25 errors.
Mladenovic began the day 1-5 at Roland Garros. She reached the second round last year after four straight first-round exits, including a loss to Li in 2010 in their only previous meeting.
“You don’t beat Li Na every day,” Mladenovic said. “It means really a lot, especially in Grand Slam.”
“When you beat Li Na you don't think about losing in the next round. It would be a shame (to lose). I’m going to enjoy this and I will have a lot of expectations for myself in the next round.”
Murray through
Andy Murray won his first match at Roland Garros in two years, beating Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
Murray had missed last year’s tournament with a back injury, but he reached the semifinals in 2011 and the quarterfinals a year later.
At this year’s tournament, Murray is seeded seventh, his lowest at a Grand Slam tournament since 2008
Mladenovic’s career had appeared to be on the right path when she won the juniors’ title at the French Open in 2009. But just like many other French players before her, she never managed to fulfil her country's lofty expectations.
Her only WTA title came in 2012 when the six-footer, who likes to put a lot of pace into rallies, prevailed in Taipei.
A couple of grand-slam titles in mixed doubles, with Canadian Daniel Nestor at Wimbledon (in 2013) and the Australian Open (in 2014), followed. But that is not enough to satisfy the ambitious Mladenovic, who has made drastic changes this season.
“This year I beat (Simona) Halep at the Paris Open. She's No. 4 in the world today, and I knew that I was made for this stuff,” she said.
Earlier, fourth-seeded Simona Halep made it through to the second round while Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm didn’t.
“I was thinking at that moment, at 5-0, that I can win 6-0, 6-0, but wasn’t too good,” Halep said. “I was a little bit relaxed after that, and it was cold. I felt a little bit in my back.
“But I stayed focused after two games lost, and then I served really well.”
The 22-year-old Romanian has never been past the second round at Roland Garros, but she entered the clay-court major as one of the favourites following a run to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open.
Playing on Court Philippe Chatrier, the main stadium at Roland Garros, Halep raced through the first set and then won the first five games of the second. But she was broken while serving for the match the first time.
Date-Krumm, the oldest woman in the field at 43, had an up-and-down match against 24th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, eventually losing 6-3, 0-6, 6-2.
Date-Krumm is the third oldest player in French Open singles history; Martina Navratilova was 47 in 2004. She made her main-draw debut at Roland Garros in 1989 before more than half of this year’s women’s field was even born.
Others advancing included No. 6 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, No. 11 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, No. 15 Sloane Stephens of the United States, No. 27 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia and No. 26 Sorana Cirstea of Romania.
Thirteenth-seeded Wozniacki lost 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-2 to 64th-ranked Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium.
In the men’s tournament, 11th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov lost to Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 6-4, 7-5, 7-6(4).
Two other seeded men retired from their matches and were eliminated, No. 16 Tommy Haas of Germany and No. 21 Nicolas Almagro of Spain. Former top-ranked player Lleyton Hewitt also lost.
But No. 5 David Ferrer of Spain, No. 12 Richard Gasquet of France, No. 19 Kevin Anderson of South Africa, No. 28 Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany and No. 32 Andreas Seppi of Italy all won.
THE RESULTS
Men: First round: Marinko Matosevic (Aus) bt Dustin Brown (Ger) 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-7(1), 7-5; Jan-Lennard Struff (Ger) bt Albano Olivetti (Fra) 6-1, 6-4, 6-4; 23-Gael Monfils (Fra) bt Victor Hanescu (Rou) 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2; 24-Fernando Verdasco (Esp) bt Michael Llodra (Fra) 6-2, 7-6(4), 7-6(3).
7-Andy Murray (Gbr) bt Andrey Golubev (Kaz) 6-1, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; 5-David Ferrer (Esp) bt Igor Sijsling (Ned) 6-4, 6-3, 6-1; Ivo Karlovic (Cro) bt 11-Grigor Dimitrov (Bul) 6-4, 7-5, 7-6(4); 28-Philipp Kohlschreiber (Ger) bt Pere Riba (Esp) 7-5, 6-4, 6-1; Carlos Berlocq (Arg) bt Lleyton Hewitt (Aus) 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-4; 32-Andreas Seppi (Ita) bt Santiago Giraldo (Col) 6-3, 7-5, 6-3; Juan Monaco (Arg) bt Lucas Pouille (Fra) 6-3, 6-1, 6-4; 19-Kevin Anderson (Rsa) bt Stephane Robert (Fra) 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.
Axel Michon (Fra) bt Bradley Klahn (USA) 6-1, 6-7(4), 5-7, 6-1, 6-4; 12-Richard Gasquet (Fra) bt Bernard Tomic 6-2, 6-1, 7-5; Jurgen Zopp (Est) bt 16-Tommy Haas (Ger); Denis Istomin (Uzb) bt Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukr) 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3; Jack Sock (USA) bt 21-Nicolas Almagro (Esp) 5-0 (retd.); Simone Bolelli (Ita) bt Andrea Arnaboldi (Ita) 6-4, 6-4, 6-2; Andreas Haider-Maurer (Aut) bt Daniel Brands (Ger) 4-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4; Pablo Cuevas (Uru) bt Matthew Ebden (Aus) 6-1, 6-2, 6-3.
Dusan Lajovic (Srb) bt Federico Delbonis (Arg) 6-3, 6-2, 6-3; Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Esp) bt 3-Stan Wawrinka (Sui) 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 6-0; Facundo Bagnis (Arg) bt Julien Benneteau (Fra) 6-1, 6-2, 1-6, 3-6, 18-16; Dominic Thiem (Aut) bt Paul-Henri Mathieu (Fra) 6-4, 7-6(3), 6-2; 18-Ernests Gublis (Lat) bt Lukasz Kubot (Pol) 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-1; Leonardo Mayer (Arg) bt James Duckworth (Aus) 5-7, 6-2, 6-4, 7-6(2).
Thomaz Bellucci (Bra) bt Benjamin Becker (Ger) 6-2, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 2-6; 14-Fabio Fognini (Ita) bt Andreas Beck (Ger) 6-4, 6-4, 6-1; Donald Young (USA) bt Dudi Sela (Isr) 6-1, 2-6, 6-1, 6-0; 27-Roberto Bautista Agut (Esp) bt Paolo Lorenzi (Ita) 6-3, 7-5, 6-2; 26-Feliciano Lopez (Esp) bt Damir Dzumhur (Bih) 6-3, 7-6(8), 6-3; Adrian Mannarino (Fra) bt Yen-Hsun Lu (Tpe) 6-2, 6-1, 6-1.
Women: Coco Vandeweghe (U.S.) bt Iveta Melzer (Cze) 7-6(6), 6-2; 22-Ekaterina Makarova (Rus) bt Shelby Rogers (U.S.) 6-2 6-3; Maria Teresa Torro (Esp) bt 30-Klara Koukalova (Cze) 7-6(4), 6-2; Magdalena Rybarikova (Svk) bt Urszula Radwanska (Pol) 4-6, 6-4, 3-0 (Radwanska retd.); Julia Glushko (Isr) bt Donna Vekic (Cro) 7-5, 2-6, 6-4; Dinah Pfizenmaier (Ger) bt Estrella Cabeza Candela (Esp) 4-6, 6-3, 6-3; 21-Kirsten Flipkens (Bel) bt Danka Kovinic (Mne) 7-6(6) 6-2
First round: Kristina Mladenovic (Fra) bt 2-Li Na (Chn) 7-5, 3-6, 6-1; 4-Simona Halep (Rou) bt Alisa Kleybanova (Rus) 6-0, 6-2; 24-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus) bt Kimiko Date-Krumm (Jpn) 6-3, 0-6, 6-2; 27-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) bt Sofia Shapatava (Geo) 6-3, 6-1; Camila Giorgi (Ita) bt Bojana Jovanovski (Srb) 6-4, 6-3; Teliana Pereira (Bra) bt Luksika Kumkhum (Tha) 4-6, 6-1, 6-1; Heather Watson (Gbr) bt Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (Cze) 6-3, 6-4; 26-Sorana Cirstea (Rou) bt Aleksandra Wozniak (Can) 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-2; Alison Riske (USA) bt Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (Cro) 7-6(2), 6-3; Polona Hercog (Slo) bt Jana Cepelova (Svk) 6-2, 6-3; Kiki Bertens (Ned) bt Alexandra Cadantu (Rou) 7-6(5), 6-1; Silvia Soler-Espinosa (Esp) bt Chanelle Scheepers (Rsa) 6-2, 6-3.
Elina Svitolina (Ukr) bt Petra Martic (Cro) 5-0 (retd.); 15-Sloane Stephens (USA) bt Shuai Peng (Chn) 6-4, 7-6(8); 11-Ana Ivanovic (Srb) bt Caroline Garcia (Fra) 6-1, 6-3; 6-Jelena Jankovic (Srb) bt Sharon Fichman (Can) 5-6, 6-1, 6-3; 20-Alize Cornet (Fra) bt Ashleigh Barty (Aus) 6-2, 6-1; 5-Petra Kvitova (Cze) bt Zarina Diyas (Kaz) 7-5, 6-2; Karolina Pliskova (Cze) bt Mathilde Johansson (Fra) 6-1, 7-6(5).
28-Andrea Petkovic (Ger) bt Misaki Doi (Jpn) 6-3, 6-3; Julia Goerges (Ger) bt Michelle Larcher De Brito (Por) 6-2, 6-3; Kurumi Nara (Jpn) bt Anna Tatishvili (USA) 6-1, 6-4.
Marina Erakovic (Nzl) bt Nadia Kichenok (Ukr) 6-2, 6-1; 32-Elena Vesnina (Rus) bt Christina McHale (USA) 7-6(0), 4-6, 6-3.
Taylor Townsend (USA) bt Vania King (USA) 7-5, 6-1; Yanina Wickmayer (Bel) bt 13-Caroline Wozniacki (Den) 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-2.
