Germany’s Angelique Kerber became the first top seed in French Open history to lose in the opening round when she was knocked out by Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova 6-2, 6-2 on Sunday.
Before this year, the earliest exits suffered by a top seed were in the second round – Justine Henin in 2004 and Serena Williams in 2014.
Makarova goes on to face either Lesia Tsurenko or Kateryna Kozlova, both of Ukraine.
“It’s unbelievable to win and to do it on my first appearance on Philippe Chatrier court as a singles player after nine years of coming to Paris,” Makarova, a former semi-finalist at the Australian and US Opens, said.
“At the end of the match, it was really tough as I knew she wouldn’t give it to me – I had to win it.”
It was the second successive first-round exit at Roland Garros for Kerber, the reigning US Open champion.
Last year, she fell to unseeded Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands.
It also continued a miserable spell for the German 29-year-old on clay this year.
She lost her opener in Stuttgart where she was the defending champion, suffered a thigh injury in the third round in Madrid and lost first time out in Rome.
On Sunday, she fell a double break down to trail 5-1 to her Russian opponent who she was facing for the 12th time.
Makarova, now ranked 40 after reaching a career high of eight, was a double break ahead again for 3-0 in the second set.
Four successive breaks of serve followed before Makarova saved seven break points in the crucial eighth game to cause the upset.
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Sixth-seeded Dominic Thiem is safely through to the second round.
Thiem, who reached the semi-finals last year, comfortably beat Bernard Tomic 6-4, 6-0, 6-2.
The 23-year-old Thiem is an outside favorite to win the tournament. He is the only player to have beaten Rafael Nadal on clay this season.
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Grigor Dimitrov has won his first match in four years at Roland Garros to reach the second round of the clay-court major.
Dimitrov made light work of veteran Frenchman Stephane Robert to win 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 on Court Philippe Chatrier, ending a four-match losing run in Paris.
The 11th-seeded Bulgarian, who was once regarded as a potential future No 1, has never fared well at the French Open. He achieved his best result on the red clay in 2013 when he made it to the third round.
Dimitrov lost his opening match on his Paris debut back in 2011 and was also beaten in the first round over the past three years.
“It was a good test,” Dimitrov said. “I knew what to expect, I just had to fight.”
Gilles Muller was the first seed in the men’s draw to exit the tournament.
The 26-seeded player from Luxembourg was defeated in four sets by Spain’s Guillermo Garcia Lopez 7-6, 6-7, 6-2, 6-2.
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Former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova has beaten Christina McHale of the United States in straight sets to reach the second round.
The eighth-seeded Kuznetsova, who won the tournament in 2009, triumphed 7-5, 6-4, sealing the result on the last of her three match points.
The 31-year-old Russian will face either Camila Giorgi or Oceane Dodin in the second round.
It is the fifth successive year that McHale has gone out in the first round at Roland Garros.
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Petra Kvitova made a winning return to tennis as she became the first player to reach the second round of the French Open.
The two-time Wimbledon champion struggled to hold back the tears after beating 86th-ranked Julie Boserup of the United States 6-3, 6-2.
Kvitova said: “I think it doesn’t really matter how played but I won.”
The match, which was briefly interrupted by rain, lasted one hour, 14 minutes before Kvitova sealed it when Boserup hit the ball into the net.
The 27-year-old Kvitova, who is seeded 15th, hit nine aces and broke her opponent’s serve three times.
Kvitova has not played in a tournament since she was attacked at her home in the Czech Republic in December.
She suffered career-threatening injuries to her left playing hand when she tackled an intruder at her home in the eastern Czech town of Prostejov.
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Former US Open runner-up Roberta Vinci could not find a way to end her losing streak at Roland Garros and lost in the first round of the French Open again.
The 31st-seeded Vinci, who ended Serena Williams’s hopes of a calendar year Grand Slam by beating her in the semi-finals at Flushing Meadows in 2015, lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to Olympic champion Monica Puig.
It is the fourth consecutive year that Vinci lost her opening match at the clay-court grand slam.
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Venus Williams started her 20th French Open with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) win over China’s Wang Qiang.
Williams, seeded 10 and three weeks shy of her 37th birthday, had to dig deep to see off her opponent who had led 4-2 in the first set and 5-3, with set points, in the second.
The American veteran, who made her Roland Garros debut in 1997 and was runner-up to sister Serena in Paris in 2002, will next face Japan’s Kurumi Nara.
Nara defeated 15-year-old Amanda Anisimova of the United States in three sets.
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The oldest man prevailed over one of the youngest.
The 38-year-old Ivo Karlovic, who is also known for his big serve and tall stature, advanced to the second round with a 7-6, 7-5, 6-4 win over teenager Stefanos Tsitsipas.
“I did not know anything about him, so was trying to look around a little bit on the internet,” Karlovic said. “I did not really know what to expect and he can hit really hard with his forehand and backhand. But I did not really give him chances to hit a lot.”
Tsitsipas, who will turn 19 in August, played for the first time in the main draw after coming through qualifying. The Greek’s inexperience sometimes showed against Karlovic, hitting a double fault to lose the opening set and another one on match point.
“I’m a nice guy, I don’t want to give lessons to younger guys,” Karlovic said when asked about his 20-year age difference with Tsitsipas. “He is a little bit unexperienced but he’ll have a very good career.”
The youngest male player in Paris this year is 18-year-old Alex de Minaur.
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American teenager Amanda Anisimova’s grand slam debut ended in defeat as she lost to Kurumi Nara of Japan.
The 90th-ranked Nara beat Anisimova, who reached the junior final in Paris last year, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.
The 15-year-old from New Jersey appeared to be on course for victory when she went 4-2 up in the second set but Nara fought back.
* Agencies
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