There were no bracket-busting stunners, but the surprises included 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic’s 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 loss to 166th-ranked qualifier Marco Trungelliti of Argentina.
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Stanislas Wawrinka had a tough start to the defence of his French Open crown as he battled through a five-set first-round clash against Lukas Rosol on Monday.
Rosol famously defeated Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2012 and was involved in a bad-tempered clash with Murray in Munich past year when the Scot told the Czech that “everyone hates you”.
Cilic was 0-5 in set points in the tiebreak.
On his third break point, Wawrinka broke serve to take a 3-1 advantage, and he broke again before holding and levelling the match.
Wawrinka is a two-time Grand Slam title victor; Rosol never has made it past the third round in 20 major tournaments and is 110-137 in tour-level matches.
Wawrinka is a two-time Grand Slam title victor, while Rosol never has been past the third round at a major tournament.
Rosol was broken twice in the second set, but he changed his shirt during the break and came out strong for the third set. The world No. 4 finally converted his second championship point as the Croatian’s last-ditch backhand sailed long.
Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka vs Czech Republic’s Lukas …
A fraught Murray dropped serve with a double-fault and conceded the opening set with a misfired forehand.
While Wawrinka won both matches, he was far from comfortable as Rosol took each to three sets, and pushed Wawrinka through the final.
It was a poor day for Italians in the women’s draw where seventh seed Roberta Vinci was crushed 6-1 6-3 by Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko and 16th seed Sara Errani, runner-up in 2012, lost to Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova 6-3 6-2. The most recent match was in the 2015 Shanghai Masters, a match Wawrinka won in three sets.
With rain not expected to ease until around 1500 (1300GMT), the tournament was already facing a backlog after just over four hours of play were possible on Sunday.
The victor of this match will play the winner of Taro Daniel and Martin Klizan in the second round.
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Heavy rain brought more havoc to the French Open on Monday with the scheduled 1100 (0900GMT) start time delayed by 90 minutes leaving organisers’ hopes of playing 66 matches looking decidedly optimistic.
