The first round of the 2011 French Open is officially underway and we had a little bit of excitement on day one. The women's side of the draw included a couple of upsets of mid-level seeds. No. 18 seed Flavia Pennetta was knocked off by Varvara Lepchenko in three sets. No. 19 seed Shahar Peer was knocked off in straight sets by Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. Other than that the seeded players all advanced in straight sets. You can view complete women's results at the Roland Garros website.
On the men's side of the draw, there was not a lot of drama as most of the top seeds advanced. No. 19 seed Marin Cilic was upset in straight sets by Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo. Beyond that, only one match went to five sets as Maxime Teixeira (FRA) had to go the distance to defeat fellow countryman Vincent Millot. Seventh seeded David Ferrer had little trouble with FInland's Jarkko Nieminen and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga handled Jan Hajek, with both men winning in straight sets. Stanislas Wawrinka needed four sets to dispatch Jan Hajek.
Fresno-born Robert Kendrick saw his French Open end in a bit of a flash as he lost in four sets to Spain's Guillermo Garcia Lopez 6-1, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. You can view complete men's results at the Roland Garros website.
After one day of the French Open, the fine folks at RolandGarros.com have put together a country scoreboard to keep track of how each country does with its combined men's and women's entries. France has the most entries with 32 and has already lost seven, due in part to a couple matchups pitting Frenchman against Frenchman. Spain had the most success on day one with six victories compared to only one defeat.
We'll be back with more detailed analysis later in the day.
We'll be providing wall-to-wall coverage of the 2011 French Open over the next two weeks. Check back in our French Open 2011 story stream for news, analysis and other details. For more detailed conversation, join the folks at The Daily Forehand.