Convincing wins for Ferrer and Tsonga on opening day

TENNIS:DAVID FERRER and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga posted convincing wins on the opening day of the French Open but Marin Cilic's poor run continued as he was dumped out by Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo.

Seventh seed Ferrer, who has again been one of the most impressive performers on clay this season and could prove a real threat to the likes of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, took only an hour and 25 minutes to see off Jarkko Nieminen 6-3 6-3 6-1.

French favourite Tsonga followed the Spaniard on to Court Philippe Chatrier and, although his 6-3 6-2 6-2 scoreline against Jan Hajek was just as emphatic, that did not tell the whole story.

Both players struggled with the wind, which whipped up the dry clay, and 17th seed Tsonga needed to save break points at the end of the first set before making his extra power count.

Stanislas Wawrinka, who could meet Swiss compatriot Roger Federer in the last 16, certainly did not have the ideal first set against French qualifier Augustin Gensse but fought back to win 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-2.

The 14th seed said: “I don’t know if relieved is the right word; I’m happy, I’m satisfied. I expected, like every year, the first match not to be too easy.”

Cilic reached the fourth round at Roland Garros in 2009 and 2010 but he lasted less than three hours at this year’s tournament before going down 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 6-4. The Croatian, seeded 19th, staged a fightback from 1-5 down in the third set but Spanish clay-court specialist Ramirez Hidalgo kept his nerve to pull off an impressive upset.

It was also a miserable day for Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis, once considered one of the sport’s next big stars but who yesterday suffered his sixth successive first-round defeat at grand slams, losing 6-1 6-4 6-2 to Blaz Kavcic.

In the women’s side of things, last year’s runner-up Samantha Stosur began in impressive fashion with a 6-2 6-3 victory over Iveta Benesova this afternoon.

The eighth seed, beaten by Francesca Schiavone in the final 12 months ago, opened proceedings at this year’s tournament on Court Philippe Chatrier and needed only an hour and eight minutes to breeze into round two.

Jelena Jankovic, the 10th seed at Roland Garros this year, also made an impressive start, defeating Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko 6-3 6-1.

Jankovic next faces Russia’s Vera Dushevina, who recovered from a set down to beat former quarter-finalist Jelena Dokic 4-6 6-3 6-2.