Defending Champ Myskina Bounced; Roddick, Sharapova Lead Tuesday at French Open

While defending runner-up Guillermo Coria was not in action, another of the "Big Three" punched his second round ticket, with No. 4 seed Rafael Nadal, competing in his first French Open, rolling over Germany's Lars Burgsmuller 6-1, 7-6(4), 6-1.

Nadal found himself down 1-3 in the second-set tiebreaker, saying afterwards he wasn't at his best.

"I want to play my best tennis here," said Nadal, who has now won 18 matches in a row during the claycourt stretch. "It is not easy. I can't play well every match. I need to improve a lot of my tennis for next days."

All French eyes were on No. 30-seeded hope Richard Gasquet, who looked like he might be heading for a fourth consecutive Roland Garros opening-round loss against Italian lucky loser Daniele Bracciali before rebounding 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.

"I was seeing that around me everybody was panicking," Gasquet said. "It was difficult for me. I saw my coach and my father putting on faces. For me, it was very bad. I was not feeling good. I can't say otherwise. But then I started fighting and I played better and better. He went down a little bit, so I enjoyed myself a little bit from then on."

Other seeded winners were defending champ (5) Gaston Gaudio (d. Benneteau, bagel in the second), (7) Tim Henman (d. (LL) Brzezicki), (10) David Nalbandian (d. Baghdatis after dropping the first set 0-6), former champ (14) Carlos Moya (d. countryman A.Martin after dropping the first), (16) Radek Stepanek (d. Srichaphan after dropping the first), (18) Mario Ancic (d. (Q) Daniel), (20) David Ferrer (d. Vanek, bagel in the fourth), (23) Sebastien Grosjean (d. Monaco), (25) Fernando Gonzalez (d. Llodra), (26) Jiri Novak (d. Phau after losing the first), (31) Juan Ignacio Chela (d. Schuettler after losing the first), and (33) Robin Soderling (d. Verdasco, who blew a 2-0 set lead).

In the only upset of the day, Serb Janko Tipsarevic outlasted (17) Dominik Hrbaty 8-6 in the fifth.

Qualifiers and wildcards fared well Monday, with five advancing in Czech (Q) Robin Vik (d. K.Kim), Spanish (Q) Fernando Vicente (d. (LL) Armando in five), German (Q) Tomas Behrend (d. C.Rochus after dropping the first), and French wildcards Florent Serra (d. Pavel) and Olivier Patience (d. (WC) Simon in four).

Other un-seeds into the second round were Belgian Xavier Malisse (d. Fish, dropping only four games), Czech Tomas Berdych (d. Morrison), Dutchman Peter Wessels (d. Mello), Peru's Luis Horna (d. Haehnel), Italian Davide Sanguinetti (d. (WC) Ascione from 0-2 sets down), Spaniards Nicolas Almagro (d. Kohlschreiber to set up a meeting with Federer), Oscar Hernandez (d. countryman (Q) Gimeno-Traver in four) and Felix Mantilla (d. Zib), Russian Dmitry Tursunov (d. Koubek after dropping the first), and Romanian Victor Hanescu (d. Tabara in four).

The match between Korea's Hyung-Taik Lee and Spain's Alex Calatrava on Monday was suspended due to darkness at two sets all.

On court Tuesday at Roland Garros are (6) Agassi vs. (Q) Nieminen, (2) Roddick vs. (WC) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, (3) Safin vs. "Everybody Loves" Raemon Sluiter, (9) Canas vs. (WC) Gael "Force" Monfils, (24) Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez vs. Mathieu, (8) Guillermo "El Mago" Coria vs. Carlsen, Santoro vs. Hernych, Kuerten vs. D.Sanchez, (13) Ljubicic vs. Puerta, (27) Volandri vs. Saulnier, (29) Youzhny vs. Muller, (19) T.Johansson vs. Draper, (12) Davydenko vs. (Q) Tuksar, (28) Kiefer vs. "Dr." Ivo Karlovic, (Q) Dupuis vs. (Q) Vliegen, (22) Massu vs. 2003 junior champion (Q) Wawrinka, (32) Ferrero vs. Beck, (WC) Clement vs. Alexander "My Serve Has" Popp, Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer vs. Wayne "The Serving Machine" Arthurs, "Grinning" Greg Rusedski vs. (LL) Flavio "Of the Day" Saretta, Guillermo "G-Lo" Garcia-Lopez vs. Olivier "The Roach" Rochus, Montanes vs. Sargsian, Enqvist vs. (Q) Dlouhy, Acasuso vs. Max "The Beast" Mirnyi, (Q) Chris "Penthouse" Guccione vs. Ventura, (Q) Djokovic vs. Ginepri, Bjorkman vs. Andreev, (Q) Tenconi vs. (Q) Blake, D.Norman vs. (LL) Lisnard, (21) Haas vs. Mayer in an all-German, (15) Robredo vs. (WC) Luczak, and Spadea vs. Costa.

Davenport Escapes, Myskina Dumped at French Open

Russian Anastasia Myskina entered the record books Monday, becoming the first defending champion in the Open Era to lose first round at the French Open when she fell 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 to Spaniard Maria Sanchez Lorenzo.

Battling a chronically sore shoulder and the stress of her mother fighting cancer, Myskina struggled to hold back tears after the match.
 
"Right now it's really difficult to understand what I have to do on court," Myskina said. "When the ball comes to me, I don't know what I have to do, where I have to put the ball. I have no confidence at all right now...Right now I can lose to anybody. No matter who's playing against me, the girl's winning."

Sanchez Lorenzo played competently from the baseline and decisively took advantage of short balls to take the net, though the two combined for well over 100 unforced errors in the match.

"Obviously she's not playing as well as last year," Sanchez Lorenzo said. "But people told me about her personal problems. It's not about her game. I think it's about her mind. I feel so sorry for her."

Almost joining the Russian on the early flight home was No. 1 seed Lindsay Davenport, who took more than a set to find her footing before dismissing Katarina Srebotnik 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.
 
"It was a little bit chilly," said Davenport, who began the match in a tank top with the temperature in the high 50s. "Luckily, I found my way about the middle of the second set and was able to turn it around before it was too late."

Davenport then saved reporters the hassle by interviewing herself.

"Do I think this is going to be by far the toughest one for me to win? Absolutely. Do I think spending a month in Europe before coming here is going to help me win? Not really."

Other seeds advancing were (4) Elena Dementieva (d. Strycova), (8) Patty Schnyder (d. Cho), (9) Vera Zvonareva (d. Meusburger), (11) Venus Williams (d. Marrero), (14) Kim Clijsters (d. Tu 1-and-0), (16) Elena Likhovtseva (d. Fedak after dropping the first set), (18) Silvia Farina Elia (d. Kremer), (19) Shinobu Asagoe (d. Schruff), (20) Daniela Hantuchova (d. Krajicek), (21) Mary Pierce (d. Douchevina), (27) Amy Frazier (d. American countrywoman Shaughnessy in three), (31) Karolina Sprem (d. Camerin), and (32) Flavia Pennetta (d. Craybas).

"I haven't had the perfect preparation, but this helps me to give me rhythm and be able to work on a few things during the match, and get my mind ready to be back playing," said Clijsters after dropping only one game. "I definitely have my list of things that I have to look after in matches -- wrist, knee, shoulder."

In the other upset on the day, Italy's Virginie Razzano ousted (25) Dinara Safina in straight sets.

Other un-seeds into the second round were qualifiers Sandra Kloesel of Germany (d. (Q) Santangelo) and Argentina's Clarisa Fernandez (d. Panova), China's Shuai Peng (d. (WC) Andrieux 0-and-1), Colombians Catalina Castano (d. Chladkova) and Fabiola Zuluaga (d. Prusova 0-and-1), Croats Jelena Kostanic (d. Tanasugarn 0-and-1) and Sanda Mamic (d. Raymond), Spain's Arantxa Parra Santonja (d. Perry in three), Bulgarian Sesil Karatantcheva (d. A.Bondarenko from a set down), Slovak Ludmila Cervanova (d. Nakamura from a set down), Japan's Akiko Morigami (d. Haynes), Poland's Marta Domachowska (d. Cohen-Aloro), Czech Eva Birnerova (d. Kirilenko from a set down), Argentine Mariana Diaz-Oliva (d. (WC) Ferguson 6-1 in the third), Swiss Emmanuelle Gagliardi (d. Perebiynis from a set down), and France's own Emilie Loit (d. Schaul, bagel in the second).

Scheduled for Tuesday at Roland Garros are (10) Henin-Hardenne vs. Martinez, (3) Mauresmo vs. Dominikovic, (2) Sharapova vs. Linetskaya in the tricky all-Russian, (17) Tatiana "Hot Pants" Golovin vs. Osterloh, (6) Kuznetsova vs. Johansson, (13) Dechy vs. Pastikova, (7) Petrova vs. Mashona "Little Sis" Washington, (29) Ivanovic vs. Foretz, (23) Sugiyama vs. Nuria Llagostera "Pancho" Vives, (22) Schiavone vs. Zheng, (26) Suarez vs. Chakvetadze, Benesova vs. Parmentier, (12) Bovina vs. Vento-Kabchi, (15) Jankovic vs. Smashnova-Pistolesi, (24) Maleeva vs. Fujiwara, Jidkova vs. Cornet, Mirza vs. (30) Dulko, (28) Bartoli vs. Peer, Arvidsson vs. Daniilidou, Mandula vs. Anabel "Funky Cold" Medina Garrigues, Ruano Pascual vs. Yakimova, Antonella Serra "Nevada" Zanetti vs. Weingartner, Martina "Nurse, Hand Me a" Sucha vs. Garbin, Peschke vs. Randriantefy, Jugic-Salkic vs. Klara "Kouky" Koukalova, Irvin vs.   Pratt, Talaja vs. Stosur, Vinci vs. Groenefeld, Fedossova vs. Brandi, Safarova vs. Vaidisova in an all-Czech, Spears vs. Beltrame, and Pin vs. Rezai.

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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Anastasia Myskina's first round exit was the first by a defending women's champion in Roland Garros history, and third in the Open Era among all Slams. The other two were Jennifer Capriati losing to Marlene Weingartner at 2003 Australia and Steffi Graf falling to Lori McNeil at 1994 Wimbledon...The four American men won a total of two sets Monday, both by "lucky loser" Hugo Armando who lost in five sets to Fernando Vicente...What's Andy Roddick's record on Court Central? Isn't it like 0-5? Not a good stat coming in Tuesday, even against a French kid from the Futures circuit...David Nalbandian has won 13 of 14 career Grand Slam first-round matches...The top seed at the French Open on the female side has never lost in the first round at the French Open, with Lindsay Davenport giving a scare Monday by losing the first set...Venus Williams has won six straight matches, two of which have come against Marta Marrero...Evgenia Linetskaya and Maria Sharapova are the same age and both are Russian. Look for a tight match and an upset alert to the punters -- never easy to play a sometimes-practice partner...Word is Amelie Mauresmo's new coach/guru/head-shrink Yannick Noah may not even show up at Roland Garros, nice therapy...If anyone got sick eating a bad crepe Monday night in Paris, the next lucky loser in the men's draw is "Garden" Noam Okun...Former Top 10er Rainer "Shine" Schuettler has lost seven straight matches. That's called being at the other end of the confidence spectrum...Uh oh, Rafael Nadal says the cut on his hand that made him pull from Hamburg is not totally closed/healed...The Tennis Channel CEO Steve Bellamy in an upcoming cover story in Tennis Week, speaking of the channel's influence on tennis magazines and tennis web media: "We are going to be one of the best things to happen to the tennis magazines in a long time. We are doing a great job of getting corporate America interested in spending money on tennis again. Undoubtedly, some of those companies will not just make television buys, but will buy magazine pages as well. We are helping to make stars out of the players they feature...In general, as long as the money is coming into the industry, we all are going to do better. It is less important whether it goes to Tennis Week, Tennis magazine, Tennis Life or a tournament sponsorship and more important that it finds its way to the sport. Money will circulate as long as it comes to the sport. Also, it doesn't do tennis or The Tennis Channel any good if a magazine goes out of business, and we have purposely tried to veer away from advertising dollars that could potentially be given to us in lieu of going to a tennis magazine. In terms of tennis web sites, ditto."...Gaston Gaudio said it wasn't the crowd that made him tight during his first-round match against a Frenchman but rather the crushing expectations as defending champ: "It's because everybody says, 'What do you feel? What do you feel being back? What goes through your head?' The expectations, it puts a lot of pressure. For me, it was an ordinary match, I feel like. It's the measure that other people put on me. It makes me nervous." Oh boy. At least the man is honest...Some more great writing from the Roland Garros website: "(Anastasia) Myskina is so down on herself that she has no idea why she's playing the way she is, or how she is supposed to get herself out of her funk." We think she has a pretty good idea, with her mother dying and a chronic shoulder injury that won't heal...Punters Alert: Will Tatiana "Hot Pants" Golovin be OK to play today after rolling her ankle yesterday? Like Andy Roddick is the past in Paris? The curse of Brad! Aieeeee!...David Sanguinetti is now through to the second round of a slam for only the fifth time in his last 22 slams...Guillermo Coria's opponent today, Kenneth Carlsen, has not won a dirt match in over two years...Karol Beck has won two dirt matches in his entire career...Look for Mariano Puerta, who could not play any slams last year due to a doping suspension, to take it out on Ivan Ljubicic today...Vince Spadea's best result at Roland Garros is reaching the third round three times. Today he faces Al Costa, whose best result was kicking the entire field's ass in 2002. Good news for Vincenzo is that Costa, with the bum knee, has only twice this year won consecutive matches...Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and Steffi Graf lead for a tennis exhibition at Virginia Commonwealth University's Siegel Center in December, with a fourth pro will be announced later. Genworth Financial, the event's sponsor, hopes to raise $500,000 for local charities that support disadvantaged children...TR.net's Matt Cronin on Serena Williams pulling from the French Open: "Apparently, last Wednesday, she did reinjured it in practice. But what no one can say for sure is whether she re-injured it enough so she couldn't make a decent effort at Roland Garros. Her pull-out surprised everyone. She did tell one of her confidantes that she's unsure whether she whether she'll be fit enough to play Wimbledon, but she never discussed whether she was too hurt to even make an attempt at the French, which is what champions do. Kim Clijsters will play the tournament with a sore knee, so why couldn't Serena play with a sore ankle? Maybe because she didn't believe she could win the tournament? Only the younger Williams can answer that."...More from Matt: "I just read a crack on Tennis-X.com that said I made an invalid comparison between Andy Roddick possibly reaching the semis (at the French) and Pat Rafter and Tim Henman's runs to the final four. The comparison was obvious: Can a man from an English-speaking country reach the semis when's he's had little success in the past? I don't recall bringing up style of play, which is relevant, but since when does a decent slice backhand and excellent transition game (which Tennis-X mentioned in the Britain and Aussie's cases) have anything to do with definite success at RG?" Argh, stop it, you're just digging a bigger hole...The South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Charlie "Brick" Bricker in Paris on Justine Henin-Hardenne: "Her two most dangerous opponents on clay are Serena Williams and (Maria) Sharapova." Huh? The same Maria Sharapova who has never advanced past a claycourt quarterfinal, and was thrashed by H-H in their last meeting on clay? Brick, pace yourself with the free beer in the media room...John McEnroe writing for The Telegraph: "A lot of people are making (Rafael) Nadal the favorite and, as impressed as I was with him in Rome, I'm not sure I go along with that...(Serena) Williams must have had 15 to 20 people in tow in Rome filming her reality TV show. While it's good for tennis because it gives the sport exposure it wouldn't normally receive, it must compromise her performance. It may make for better television if she's sight-seeing at the Sistine Chapel rather than out on the practice courts, but it sure as heck doesn't help her game."...Boris Becker, writing for the TimesOnline, says Rafael Nadal's greatness reminds him of -- surprise -- himself: "...he throws himself around the court; he moves well; there is exuberance in the way he plays; he loves the physical and emotional combat; he becomes more powerful through the excitement of the crowd. I think back these 20 years -- where have they gone? -- and images of the way I was are crystal clear." Easy Boris, the column isn't "Ego on Parade"...Did anyone else want to knock themselves unconscious on a coffee table to no longer hear ESPN commentator Brad Gilbert go on and on (and on) about Gaston Gaudio's blue socks? Drop it!...Venus Williams' entry in the 2005 French Open Cliche Contest on Monday: "I was always raised to go for the gold, and the sky's the limit. I go for it all. I don't put any limits on myself." You just said the sky was the limit -- make up your mind.