Andy Murray enjoyed a comfortable start to the French Open on Tuesday with a win as the seventh seed played the event for the first time since 2012.

The Scot, who missed the Open a year ago with back pain, dispatched Kazakh Andrey Golubev 6-1, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in a quietly confident performance on a cool, breezy day to reach the second round.

“I was looking forward to playing again,” said Murray, a one-time semi-finalist at the Open, who struck 19 winners and broke eight times.

“I came here a few weeks ago to practice with (Jo-Wilfried) Tsonga... I was looking forward to it even more after that. It was tricky conditions out there, so it wasn’t easy to play great tennis or very exciting tennis. You had to a play solid, high percentage game. That was enough today.” Fifth seed David Ferrer, 2013 runner-up to eight-time winner Rafael Nadal, began with a victory over Igor Sijsling 6-4, 6-3, 6-1.

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, who was tipped as potential title outsider.

“It’s a big disappointment for me. I liked my chances here,” said Dimitrov.

“He played really good. He came from a final last week and is really confident. It was a very tough task for me today, especially if everything was going his way. I just couldn’t find the rhythm.” French favourite Richard Gasquet, seeded 12th, made his return after a knee problem, advancing over Bernard Tomic 6-2, 6-1, 7-5.

The Australian is trying to recover form after January double hip surgery, but has so far had little to show.

“I really struggled with his game, especially on clay. He really gave it to me today, and I could not do anything in the first few sets,” Tomic said.

Aussie Lleyton Hewitt lost 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 to Carlos Berlocq.

German 16th seed Tommy Haas had to retire from his second straight match with the shoulder problem that has bothered him this season, handing a 2-5 win to Jurgen Zopp.

Women's Singles

In women’s play, 103rd-ranked Kristina Mladenovic sent former winner Li Na crashing out of her opening match 7-5, 3-6, 6-1.

The loss dealt Australian Open champion Li the same fate as her men’s counterpart, Stan Wawrinka, after the Swiss Melbourne champion was beaten Monday.

It marked the first time in history that both the men’s and women’s grand slam singles champions have lost in the first round at the next major.

“Nobody says if you’re number two in the world you have to win all the matches,” said the 32-year-old Chinese national. “I mean, this is tennis.” Off-form 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 avenged a first-round loss Mladenovic took against Li four years ago in Paris.

“Everyone comes to the court, everyone has a chance to win,” Li said.

“It didn’t matter who played me, I would have lost this match. She didn’t put a lot of pressure on me. I gave the match away.” 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.

Sixth seed Jelena Jankovic finished off a match from Monday with a defeat of Canadian Sharon Fichman 5-7, 6-1, 6-3.

2008 champion and 11th seed Ana Ivanovic started with a defeat of Caroline Garcia 6-1, 6-3 while Yanina Wickmayer put out injured former number one Caroline Wozniacki, the 13th seed, 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-2.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW