French Open: Early Rounds

This post is a look at the first two rounds of the French Open, which comes a day late due to rain yesterday which forced a number of second round matches into today.  The third round is where the seeded players can first play other seeds and we can take a look back at who has been upset, etc.  The top players have accounted well for themselves, particularly on the men's side.  Only one men's top 16 seed has bowed out, and that due to a terrible draw.  Four top 16 women's seeds are out but 13 seeds in all, and there have been a few stunning upsets.

I have been tracking results at majors since 2009, and the 5 men's seeds out in 2 rounds in the lowest I have seen, and seeds went an unbelievable 27-0 in the 2nd round.  On average since 2009, 9.6 men's seeds lose in the early rounds.  The lowest I've tracked was 6 seeds out at '09 Wimbledon.  At the Aussie Open this year, 8 were eliminated early with 5 losses coming in round 1.  At last year's French Open, 10 men's seeds crashed and burned, five in each round.  So this was an excellent performance by the favored thirty-two.  (The worst showing by men's seeds was at the '10 US Open, where 13 lost in the first two rounds.)

The picture isn't quite as rosy on the women's side, where on average 11.6 seeds have lost in rounds 1 and 2 since 2009.  This year 13 went out with 7 of those coming in the first round, so this is above average, especially when you take into the French Open has been kindest to the seeds over the years.  Last year's French Open saw 11 women's seeds out early with 5 of those in round 1, but at the Aussie Open in January, 14 seeds were dismissed in the first two rounds, with 6 losses coming in round 1.  In case you're interested, the worst showing by seeds was at the '09 US Open with 16 early losses and the best was at the '10 French Open with 8 early losses.

All the men's quarterfinalists from last year that entered (Murray and Del Potro pulled out) are still in the draw.  Of the women's quarterfinalists from last year, Cibulkova, Kanepi, and Shvedova are all already gone.  The former champions have all survived except one (Li) despite Schiavone and Kuznetsova being unseeded.

Seeds Out
5) Tomas Berdych (CZE) - R1 l. to Monfils
17) Juan Monaco (ARG) - R1 l. to Gimeno-Traver
22) Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) - R1 l. to Tursunov
28) Florian Mayer (GER) - R1 l. to Istomin
31) Marcel Granollers (ESP) - R1 l. to F.Lopez

6) Na Li (CHN) - R2 l. to Mattek-Sands
10) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) - R2 l. to Jovanovski
11) Nadia Petrova (RUS) - R1 l. to Puig
16) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) - R2 l. to Erakovic
19) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) - R2 l. to Cetkovska
21) Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) - R2 l. to Schiavone
22) Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) - R1 l. to Kuznetsova
23) Klara Zakopalova (CZE) - R1 l. to Kanepi
24) Julia Goerges (GER) - R1 l. to Kucova
25) Lucie Safarova (CZE) - R1 l. to Hampton
27) Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) - R2 l. to Ormaechea
28) Tamira Paszek (AUT) - R1 l. to Oudin
30) Venus Williams (USA) - R1 l. to U.Radwanska

-Monfils, Kuznetsova, and Hampton also took out seeds early at the Aussie Open
-All of the men here but Berdych also lost early at the Aussie Open
-Petrova, Cibulkova, Pavlyuchenkova, Safarova, Zakopalova, Shvedova, and Paszek all also lost early at the Aussie Open

Qualifiers Still Alive
Paula Ormaechea (ARG)
Dinah Pfizenmaier (GER)

Eight players born in 1994 or later won first round matches -- Beck, Svitolina, Bouchard, and Schmiedlova ('94); Kyrgios, Keys, and Putintseva ('95); and Barty ('96).  Kyrgios was Aussie wildcard and won the boys Aussie Open this year, Beck and Svitolina are past girls French Open champs.

American Play
Men: 6-8 through round 2 with Isner and Querrey in the 3rd round and Harrison and Sock joined them in round 2.  It was encouraging to see Kudla, Sock, and Johnson qualify and Williams be a lucky loser but only Sock got a win from that group (def. Garcia-Lopez).  Russell, Blake, and wildcard Kuznetsov were the other first round losers.  An unfortunate draw saw Isner come from 2 sets down to outlast Harrison 8-6 in the 5th in today's second round action.  One could have hoped for a little better results given no one played a seed in round one (Sock l. to Haas in round 2), but these are the best clay results for awhile for American men.

Women: 15-10 through round 2 with Serena, Stephens, Lepchenko (all seeds), Hampton, and Mattek-Sands through to round 3 and Keys, Burdette, Oudin, Rogers, and King all winning matches.  Hampton and Oudin both took out seeds (Safarova and Paszek) and King lost to Stephens in round 2 while wild card Rogers went out to Suarez Navarro.  Mattek-Sands stunned Li for the upset of the tournament so far.  Venus, McHale, Davis, Vandeweghe, and Min suffered opening round losses (Coco to the seeded Shvedova) but overall it was a great two rounds for the American women and there is room to do more besides Serena of course, who has lost only 4 games in 2 matches.  Also of note here is the young Puerto Rican Puig, who has advanced to the third round with wins over Petrova and Keys.

With that, enjoy the next few days of tennis and I'll tell all about the quarterfinalists next week.