French Open: Early Rounds

This is the post where I rundown which seeded players have embarrassed themselves and lost early, and exalt the fortunes of those unseeded players who are still alive.  There will be little to no mention of the seeds who have only done what they were expected to do...reach the third round.  Because of the few matches that couldn't be finished Thursday night, this post is held over until today

Men's Seeds Out:  10) Isner (R2 l. to Mathieu), 15) Lopez (R1 l. to Serra), 16) Dolgopolov (R1 l. to Stakhovsky), 23) Stepanek (R1 l. to Goffin), 24) Kohlschreiber (R2 l. to L.Mayer), 25) Tomic (R2 l. to Giraldo), 26) Roddick (R1 l. to Mahut), 28) Troicki (R2 l. to Fognini), 30) Melzer (R1 l. to Berrer), 32) F.Mayer (R2 l. to Schwank)

Women's Seeds Out:  5) S.Williams (R1 l. to Razzano), 8) Bartoli (R2 l. to Martic), 11) Zvonareva (w/d), 12) Lisicki (R1 l. to Mattek-Sands), 16) Kirilenko (R2 l. to Zakopalova), 17) Vinci (R1 l. to Arvidsson), 19) Jankovic (R2 l. to Lepchenko), 20) Safarova (R2 l. to Martinez Sanchez), 24) Cetkovska (R2 l. to Johansson), 30) Barthel (R1 l. to Davis), 31) Zheng (R2 l. to Wozniak), 32) Niculescu (R1 l. to Bratchikova)

Ten men's seeds are out, five in the first round.  Twelve women's seeds are out, five in the first round plus Zvonareva.  In the Aussie Open this year, 11 men's seeds were gone including 6 by the first round, and 12 women's seeds were gone but only 4 in the first round.  At last year's French Open, 11 men's seeds lost by this time including 5 in the first round, and only 9 women's seeds had lost but 7 of those were in the first round.  So fairly standard numbers.  Promising young players Tomic and Barthel lost in the second and first round, respectively, in their first appearance as seeds in a major's draw.

Unseeded men in third round:  Fabio Fognini (ITA), Santiago Giraldo (COL), Nicolas Mahut (FRA), Lukasz Kubot (POL), Leonardo Mayer (ARG), Q-Tommy Haas (GER), Q-Eduardo Schwank (ARG), L-David Goffin (BEL), wc-Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA), wc-Nicolas Devilder (FRA).  Many of these men have had success at the French Open in the past, e.g. Fognini who was an unseeded quarterfinalist last year.

Unseeded women in third round:  Christina McHale (USA), Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (ESP), Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP), Klara Zakopalova (CZE), Petra Martic (CRO), Aleksandra Wozniak (CAN), Varvara Lepchenko (USA), Sloane Stephens (USA), Arantxa Rus (NED), Mathilde Johansson (FRA), Nina Bratchikova (RUS), Q) Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ).  Rus beat Clijsters last year, Shvedova reached the French Open QF in '10.  Americans went 10-2 with Serena one of the losers.

Eliminated '11 Quarterfinalists:  Monfils, Soderling, and Petkovic (injured), Chela (R1 l. to Baghdatis), Bartoli-SF (R2 l. to Martic)

Plenty of drama still to come.  Stay tuned.