Li Na, the Australian Open champion, followed her male counterpart Stan Wawrinka out of the French Open in the first round when she lost 7-5 3-6 6-1 to local favourite Kristina Mladenovic yesterday.
The second seed from China, who won the Roland Garros title in 2011, admitted she had handed victory to the Frenchwoman through her own failings in Paris.
“I think it doesn’t matter who plays today against me, I always lose. Today I just gave it away,” said Li. “Nobody says if you’re No. 2 in the world you have to win all the matches.
“The problem is myself, I don’t think I’m doing well on the court. I didn’t think totally what I should do, like especially I didn’t follow the game plan. In my mind I didn’t have any idea how to play the match.”
David Ferrer, runner-up last year to eight-times champion Rafa Nadal, and Wimbledon champion Andy Murray and local favourite Richard Gasquet reached the second round.
Murray, who missed the claycourt grand slam because of a back injury last year, was the only one of the trio to drop a set in a 6-1 6-4 3-6 6-3 defeat of Kazakhstan‘s Andrey Golubev. Men’s seeds Tommy Haas and Nicolas Almagro were forced to withdraw injured.
Li’s defeat made it the first time that men’s and women’s grand slam champions have been knocked out in the following major in the first round. Wawrinka, the Swiss third seed, lost to Spain’s Guillermo Garcia Lopez in four sets on Monday.
Mladenovic saved two set points in the opener, lost focus in the second but stepped up a gear again in the decider to wrap it up on her second match point.
“It’s incredible, without you I couldn’t have done it,” a weeping Mladenovic told the crowd.
Another young Frenchwoman, Caroline Garcia, offered far fewer problems to 2008 champion Ana Ivanovic on the same court. The Serbian won 6-1 6-3 to join Svetlana Kuznetsova, in the second round.
Caroline Wozniacki, the former world No.1 now seeded 13th, suffered more pain after her break-up with top golfer Rory McIlroy when she lost in three sets to Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium on her return to tennis and the public eye.
Ferrer, the fifth seed who beat world No.1 Nadal in the Monte Carlo quarter-finals, eased through 6-4 6-3 6-1 against Igor Sijsling.
The Spaniard said he was not surprised by the early shocks. “The tennis is very close. It’s difficult this sport,” he said.
Eleventh seed Grigor Dimitrov, one of the young players expected to challenge the likes of eight-times champion Nadal in Paris, found giant Ivo Karlovic too hot to handle in a 6-4 7-5 7-6(4) loss.
“Today he was all over the court. He was just hitting his shots, you know, penetrating every volley, low slice, serving really good. He always serves good,” said Dimitrov.
“I just couldn’t find the rhythm, and I couldn’t achieve any of the little opportunities that I had in the match.”
Murray also had his problems in the third set against Golubev, who suddenly started mixing up his game, but he regained control to reach the second round in a quarter of the draw opened up by Wawrinka’s defeat.
“He’s a tough player, he’s extremely aggressive and puts you on the back foot really early,” said Murray of Golubev.
“It was windy, especially at the beginning. I didn’t go for my shots too much, I just tried to be patient.”
France’s Gasquet, seeded 12, won 6-2 6-1 7-5 against Austria’s Bernard Tomic while former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt lost 3-6 6-2 6-1 6-4 to Argentine Carlos Berlocq.
Tommy Haas, the 16th seed, pulled out with an injured shoulder when leading 5-2 in the first set against Juergen Zopp of Estonia.