Nadal, Djoker win, Kerber out

Paris, May 24

There were glimpses of the vintage Rafael Nadal as the Spaniard started his quest for a record-breaking 10th French Open title in merciless fashion, demolishing Australian Sam Groth 6-1 6-1 6-1.

The fourth seed, who will play either Argentine Facundo Bagnis or French qualifier Kenny de Schepper in the second round, played flawless tennis, making only three unforced errors in a one-sided match.

Nadal has won two titles on clay this season, including the Monte Carlo Masters.

He ended his opponent's misery with a trademark crosscourt forehand winner on his second match point on Court Suzanne Lenglen. 

Novak Djokovic began his pursuit of the only grand slam title missing from his collection with a no-nonsense 6-4 6-1 6-1 win over Taiwan's Lu Yen-hsun in the first round. The Serbian now stands only six matches away from becoming the first man in almost 50 years to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time. Djokovic safely secured a second-round clash with Belgian Steve Darcis.   

Andy Murray survived a nervy fifth-set decider against Czech veteran Radek Stepanek to complete a 3-6 3-6 6-0 6-3 7-5 comeback win. Also advancing were Tomas Berdych, Dominic Thiem, John Isner and Bernard Tomic.

Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber lost (6-2, 3-6, 6-3) to 58th-ranked Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands.

Should have listened to coach: Andrianjafitrimo 

French teenager Tessah Andrianjafitrimo suffered a nightmare debut at Roland Garros when she was crushed 6-0 6-0 by China's Qiang Wang. The 17-year-old wildcard was completely overwhelmed as she experienced the dreaded 'double bagel' on court 17. After her 51-minute drubbing she admitted that next time she should listen to her coach. “I didn't listen to my coach a lot. I wanted to be on my own, but I have lots of things to learn. I'm still a young player, and I wanted to behave as an adult would behave,” she said. “I have learned that I should stick to my routine. I should listen to my coach, even more today.” 

Not retiring: Schiavone

It was a heart-tugging moment: As Francesca Schiavone went down to defeat in the first round, the tournament organisers announced she was retiring, and the crowd had seen her last Roland Garros campaign. But one person didn't feel very warm and sentimental: Schiavone. The retirement was news to her.

Roland Garros's Twitter feed had carried the announcement. The tweet was quickly deleted, but several reporters took theinformation into the news conference room after Schiavone's 6-2 6-4 loss to Kristina Mladenovic. “Roland Garros announced my retirement, but I didn't,” Schiavone told them. Venus Williams beat Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4). — Agencies