• French Open, Day One

Dominant Soderling breezes into second round in Paris

Robin Soderling cruised into the second round © Getty Images

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Day One in pictures
Women's round-up: Day One

Last year's beaten finalist Robin Soderling lived up to his celebrated reputation at the French Open as he breezed past Laurent Recouderc in straight sets during his first-round match.

The fifth seed is the only man to have beaten Rafael Nadal at the tournament - in the process snapping a 31-game winning streak - and he showed all the experience and confidence garnered from that success in his 6-0 6-2 6-3 triumph.

It has been a tumultuous clay court season for Soderling in his three tournaments this year - one second place and two early exits - but his game looked in fine fettle against the world No. 179.

Although wildcard entrant Recouderc was hampered by a finger injury in the second set, there was no sense at any point that he had the game to trouble Soderling in what was the first meeting between the players. The Swede will face Nicolas Lapentti or Taylor Dent in the next round.

"I don't think about [defeating Nadal in 2009] too much," Soderling said. "That was all last year. I have to start over again, but of course it's always nice to come back to a place where you did well last year. Gives you good feelings. It's always nice to have a quick match in the early rounds. I got to hit a few balls. We had a few rallies, so it was a good match."

Home favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga survived a gruelling five-setter against Germany's Daniel Brands to progress to the second round. Brands stunned the world No. 10, winning the opening set as Tsonga struggled with his serve, but after recovering from a slow start, he looked to be on course for victory in four. But Brands refused to give in, and forced the match to a tie-breaker.

Bidding to become the first French champion since 1983, Tsonga showed his staying power as he grinded out a 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-7(2) 7-5 victory. The Roland Garros crowds will be treated to an all-French encounter when Tsonga meets his good friend Josselin Ouanna in the second round after the Frenchman beat Lukasz Kubot 7-6(5) 6-7(4) 6-2 6-4.

Julien Benneteau progresses at the expense of Ernests Gulbis © Getty Images

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Big things were expected of Ernests Gulbis - he was the first player to take a set off Nadal on clay this year, and he ousted Roger Federer at the Rome Masters - but his challenge was halted at the earliest possible juncture after he withdrew from his match against Julien Benneteau. With his movement severely impaired by a hamstring complaint, and at two sets in arrears, Gulbis called it a day - leaving Benneteau to face Leonardo Mayer or Sergiy Stakhovsky.

"I stretched my hamstring in my right leg and I heard two cracks," said Gulbis. "I will go for a scan and hope that nothing is broken."

Marin Cilic recovered from a second-set lapse to overcome the first hurdle in his bid for a maiden clay-court title. The Croatian, who has never progressed past the fourth round at Roland Garros, occasionally showed his fragility on the red dust during a 6-1 3-6 6-3 6-1 victory over Ricardo Mello.

There have been signs that Cilic's game is improving on clay - he was a losing finalist in Munich this year - but his lack of mobility, which is likely to prevent him from making a tilt at the title, forced him to play one more set than he would have desired in the oppressive heat in Paris. Dmitry Tursunov or Daniel Gimeno-Traver await in the next stage of the competition.

Mikhail Youzhny has had his troubles at the French Open - this is his tenth, and he has never reached the last eight - but he has scarcely played better than in his victory against Michal Przysiezny. The 11th seed dropped just five games in his 6-1 6-0 6-4 triumph, which earns him a meeting with Michael Yani or Lukas Lacko.

Janko Tipsarevic was denied a potential second-round tie against Roger Federer after he was sent crashing out of the tournament by Alejandro Falla. Other first-day winners included Fabio Fognini, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Albert Montanes and Thiemo de Bakker.

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