3.16 pm: Monsieur Chardy is more Laurel and Hardy at the moment. He's just squandered his third, fourth and fifth match points and is now stuck at 9-9 with Mr Lu. A tad profligate from the Frenchman if you ask me. Benneteau meanwhile breoke back and had two set points but Zverev served like an hombre and has taken it to a breaker. Crucial times - will Bennet' lead 2-0 or will it be 1-1 and the German has the wind in his sails?
3.07 pm: Gasquet takes the breaker 7-4 and is through in three to face Grigor Dimitrov who defeated Donald Young, also in three sets including a tie-break.They of course are in the "quarter of death" featuring Tomic, Isner, Ferrer and Murray. Ouch.
2.58 pm: ChardyLu sounds like a woman from Alabama but actually it's a match which has gone beyond regulation. It's 7-7 in the decider. Wow - Chardy was 5-2 up in the third as well... Zverev has broken and will serve to make it 1-1, while Gasquet's been taken to a tie-break in the third.
2.49 pm: Is Benneteau tiring? He was a set and a break up but his lack of tennis over the past six weeks is showing and he’s just been broken back by Zverev, so it’s 3-4 in the second with the German to serve. Bennet’ had to wait for his elbow to heal over (the bone that is) before he could pick up a racquet again, and he started off hitting for 15 minutes at a time with kids’ fuzzy balls so it’s amazing that he’s here at all. He’s hoping for a good showing to qualify for France’s Olympic team (Tsonga has chosen to play with Llodra in the doubles so that’s one avenue that has been closed. The top four French men will get through, and Bennet’s currently fifth, though Monfils isn’t here and won’t get any points obviously).
2.38 pm: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has defeated Greta Arn in straight sets. No.22 seed Nastya Pavs, as we call her, will face either another Hungarian in Melinda Czink or Britain's Anne Keothavong. With Agnes Szavay out through injury, Nastya could be solely responsibile for seeing off the entire Magyar contingent.
2.18 pm: Benneteau is showing no signs of being rusty – he’s taken the first set from in-form German qualifier Mischa Zverev. Bennet’ was playing his best tennis ever when he had his double injury, proving that for some at least, life begins at 30.
Ritchie Gasquet is only 26, but he’s doing equally well – twice as well in fact as he leads another qualifier, Estonian Jurgen Zopp by two sets. Gregor Dimitrov, touted as “the new Federer” for the past few years, is also two to the good against Donald Young, the enfant terrible of the US tennis scene.
1.49 pm: Lu Yen-Hsun has come back from two sets down to level matters with Jeremy Chardy. The Frenchman is No.55 in the world and reached the fourth round here in 2008 as a wild card.
1.49 pm: Allons enfant de la patrie at the moment. Richard Gasquet – he of the beautiful one-handed backhand and the weight of expectation after appearing on the cover of a French sports magazine in 1996, aged 10 – leads Juergen Zopp 6-3, 3-4 (on service in the second). That’s on Chatrier, while on Lenglen Julien Benneteau is 3-0 up on Mischa Zverev. Local resident Bennet’ fractured his elbow six weeks ago in a fall in Monte Carlo and sprained his ankle at the same time. He played in an exhibition tournament last Friday but that’s it in terms of tennis since then, so if he can live up to his No.29 seed billing against the German qualifier (who obviously is on a roll after winning three matches in a row to get through the qualies) then it’ll be some achievement.
1.35 pm: Cool Britannia! Heather Watson is through 6-2, 6-4 against Elena Vesnina. This is the second year in a row that the Guernsey girl has made the second round here. She’ll face Julia Goerges in round 2 after the German defeated Lucie Hradecka 7-6(1), 6-4.
1.30 pm: Other victories to round up. David Ferrer dropped just eight games in his win over Lukas Lacko and the Spanish No.6 seed will face the winner of Benoit Paire – Albert Ramos which has just replaced them on court No.2.
1.19 pm: And there we go. In the time to took me to wolf down my lunch (in front of the 75m2 screen outside Lenglen so that I could watch what was going on, natch!) Maria Sharapova won through to the second round in a double bagel, bicycle wheels as they say in France – 6-0, 6-0. Poor Alex Cadantu didn’t hit a single winner throughout the 48 minutes of the match (which obviously included seven change-overs). Masha now faces Ayumi Morita in the second round after the Japanese player beat Polona Hercog in three sets).
12.51 pm: Wow (I know, I need to find another word to express my surprise). Sharapova 6-0s the first set in 20 minutes. One. Way. Traffic.
12.31 pm: Here's Maria! Ms Sharapova (soon to be Mrs Vujicic? She's engaged to NBA player Sasha and was sporting a hyooge diamond when she came here in February for the Open GDF Suez) is 2-0 up already on Alexandra Cadantu, a Romanian ranked No.78 in the world, having made the final in Monterrey earlier in the year.
12.29 pm: Tipsy is now living up to his No.8 billing, taking the second set 6-4 to level his match with Querrey. He's rocking some cool sunshades, as is only appropriate as it's 26 degrees here today. Florian Mayer leads Daniel Gimeno Traver two sets to love, ditto Chardy over Lu.
12.24 pm: Second winner and it’s another Slam champion. Francesca Schiavone outlasts the ever-smiling Kimiko Date Krumm 6-3, 6-1 and moves into the second round, where she’ll face the winner of two tall, slender former Grand Slam semi-finalists – Tsvetana Pironkova (Wimbledon 2010) and Yanina Wickmayer (US Open 2009).
12.07 pm: First winner of the day, in less than an hour, is Petra Kvitova. 6-1, 6-2 for the Wimbledon champion over the junior Wimbledon champion. The No.4 seed could face Radwanska next up – Urszula that is, the 21-year-old sister of No.3 seed Agnieszka (who has to take on Venus don’t forget!) And Frenchies will be hoping that Kvitova instead faces Urszula’s first-round opponent later today, Pauline Parmentier who has become a Fed Cup stalwart this year.
11.57 am: Franny takes the opener 6-3, bouncing back from that early break. Kvitova is back on service but Barty is holding her own, and good for her. Ferrer has 6-3d the opener, doing his usual “plough a furrow just behind the baseline getting absolutely everything back” routine, and highly-fancied Frenchman (both in terms of his tennis and his looks) Jeremy Chardy has 6-4 the first over Lu Yen-Hsun, who made the second week of Wimbledon two years ago when he beat Andy Roddick (and then revealed that he keeps fit by chasing poultry on his Dad’s chicken farm).
11.43 am: Aha, Barty time! Ash breaks to open the second! And hoo cha cha, Querrey has broken for a second time to take the opening set over Tipsarevic. I told you Sam was a tough draw for anyone to get early doors. Tipsy’s still got time to turn this around though.
Ooh, good news for the Brits – Heather Watson is half-way towards the second round having 6-2d the opener over Elena Vesnina. And Lucie Hradecka is showing her clay-court pedigree by breaking back against Gorgeous Goerges (poor Julia has had an injury-hit season thus far and is below her potential).
11.38 am: 6-1 Kvitova in the first set. Poor 16-year-old Ashleigh Barty is looking overmatched at the moment, but let’s be honest, this is a Grand Slam winner she’s facing and whilst that major came on grass, Pet Kvit also made the second week here last year so she’s no slouch on clay. Her hard-hitting works on any surface in the women’s game.
11.28 am: La Schiave breaks back and holds. Meanwhile on Court No.2 we have No.6 seed David Ferrer. Dabeeeed (as it’s pronounced) is an absolute clay-court bandeeeeet and everyone in his quarter of the draw (Murray, Gasquet) is already wondering how the heck they’ll get past him. He’s 2-0 up on Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko.
11.22 am: It's pretty much 1-1 on all courts at the moment with a few notable exceptions. KDK (which is how I'll refer to Kimiko Date-Krumm from hereon in) has broken Franny Schiavone to open, and Julia Gorgeous Goerges, who is seeded No.25 here, is 3-0 up on Lucie Hradecka, who won the doubles here last year with her compatriot Andrea Hlavackova).
11.15 am: TipsarevicTipsarevic – Querrey is an interesting one. Sam the American Eagle is down to No.71 in the world but his ranking was the opposite of that – swap the 1 and the 7 round – less than 18th months ago. Tough draw for No.8-ranked Tipsy in the first round, especially as Querrey has won a tour level title on clay (Belgrade) in 2010 and a Challenger (Sarasota) this year.
11.03 am: On Chatrier we now have 2010 champion Francesca Schiavone versus Kimiko Date-Krumm. Frannie also made the final here last year but hasn't done much since then. And this battle is between two veterans of the circuit - Schiavone will be 32 next month and Frau Kurmm (she's married to a German racing driver) is my age! But like her, I keep myself young thanks to tennis.
10.55 am: First match on Lenglen is an interesting one: Petra Kvitova versus Ashleigh Barty. Why is it so interesting, I hear you ask? Well it’s last year’s two Wimbledon singles champions going head to head. Petra won the women’s singles, Ashleigh the girls’. This, as you would expect, is their first meeting. Barty is only 16 and ranked No.332 in the world, and is here thanks to a reciprocal arrangement between the French Tennis Federation and Tennis Australia (Aussies get a wild card in the men’s and women’s singles here, a Frenchie gets likewise in Melbourne. Same applies with the USTA).
10.50 am: Well hellooooo everybody and welcome to day 3 at the French. It's time for us to finish off the first round with the bottom half of the draws in the men's and women's. That means Rafa, Andy Murray, Serena, Kvitova, Wozniacki and Ferrer and many, many more.
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