• French Open, Day Two

Robson undone by Wozniacki in Paris

ESPN staff
May 27, 2013

Laura Robson's hopes of springing a first-round upset at Roland Garros were dashed by former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, who produced a masterful performance to see off the British No. 1 6-3 6-2.

Having beaten Kim Clijsters, Li Na and Petra Kvitova at the last two grand slams, Robson's growing reputation as a hard-hitting giant killer had seen her installed as a favourite to reach the second round in some quarters.

But No. 10 seed Wozniacki, who came into the tournament on the back of a five-match losing streak, fought fire with fire from the baseline and proved too quick around the court for the teenager.

Wozniacki broke Robson as early as the fourth game and while Robson responded with a break of her own to bring it back to 3-2 the Dane quickly assumed control once more with the third successive break of the set. This time there was to be no way back for the Briton, who found herself hitting for the lines with limited success in an effort to find a way past Wozniacki's sterling defence.

Robson's body language betrayed her disappointment at slipping a set behind as Wozniacki kept up the pressure. The Dane made just three unforced errors in the second set to Robson's 19 - she made 39 in total - and broke twice to open up a 4-1 lead. Again Robson hit back with a break of her own, only to concede the break again before Wozniacki served out the match in one hour, 11 minutes.

"She's always capable of playing really good tournaments, she's always a tough person to play," Robson said. "You have to beat her and she won't give you many unforced errors. I knew it was going to be a tough match and I just made too many mistakes."

Later on Monday, defending champion Maria Sharapova dropped just eight points on serve to ease into the second round with a 6-2 6-1 triumph over Hsieh Su-Wei.

Sharapova, who completed a career Grand Slam with victory at the French Open last year, needed just 54 minutes to see off her Taiwanese opponent, the world No. 42, who has now played five times at Roland Garros and been beaten in the first round on each occasion.

No. 4 seed Agnieszka Radwanska showed no ill effects of the heavy strapping to her right thigh in the day's first match on Court Suzanne Lenglen, outmanoeuvring Israel's Shahar Peer with ease en route to a 6-1 6-1 victory.

The Pole didn't register the first win of the day however - that honour went to Roberta Vinci, who beat Stephanie Foretz Gacon 6-3 6-0 in 53 minutes.

Li found the going slightly tougher against Anabel Medina Garrigues. The former French Open champion came into the match with a 0-3 head-to-head record on clay against the Spaniard but mixed up her game well, winning 13 of 16 points at the net to take a rollercoaster 6-3 6-4 win.

Li was quickly 5-1 up in the first set before Garrigues finally made an impact, clawing a break back to move within two games of her Chinese opponent.

It wasn't enough to salvage the opening set but there were signs of a fightback as the Spaniard broke again at the start of the second, but Li battled back to move 4-3 ahead. Another break at 5-4 - the 10th of the match - was enough to put Garrigues out of sight.

The No. 6 seed will face Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the second round after her 6-4 6-1 win over Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Portugal. The American was one of five US winners in the women's draw on Monday - she will be joined in the second round by Vania King, Varvara Lepchenko, Madison Keys and Melanie Oudin, who ousted Austrian No. 28 seed Tamira Paszek 6-4 6-3.

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