The third day at Roland Garros was graced with plenty of champions on the court. The two top seeds, Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic, nine-time and reigning five-time champion Rafael Nadal, and two-time major champions Svetlana Kuznetsova and Petra Kvitova graced the courts on the final day of the first round at the French Open. There were some big waves made with the upsets today, and the Americans rebounded with a solid showing all highlighted in today’s French Open Recap.

The Favorites on the Men’s Side Roll

It was a comfortable start to the French Open for favorites Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard made light work of junior French Open doubles champion Quentin Halys 6-3, 6-3, 6-4. The Frenchman was looking to give Nadal trouble with his big hitting, but he was up to the task. We know it’s just round one, but the Parisian clay seems to have given Nadal some of his confidence back as you saw him striking his forehand today, hitting 11 winners on that side. Next up for Rafa is countryman Nicolas Almagro. Novak Djokovic also made light work of his opponent, Jarkko Nieminen, taking him down 6-2, 7-5, 6-2. This match was never going to be a contest from the first point just taking into account the form of each player. We all know the form of Djokovic, meanwhile, Nieminen was struggling mightily on the clay all year. Despite that, Nieminen took a 4-1 lead in the second, but the Serb rolled to take six of the next seven games to take the set. The win takes Djokovic onto a 23 match win streak at the moment and will face the winner of Paolo Lorenzi and GIlles Muller which was suspended due to darkness at the start of the fifth set.

The Bouchard Blues in a Mlad, Mlad World

Well, Kristina Mladenovic has done it again ladies and gentleman. The hometown girl has knocked off one of the top seeds in the first round of the French Open again. Last year, it was women’s tennis sweetheart and world number two Li Na. Now it’s Canada’s sweetheart, Eugenie Bouchard. The first set was a back and forth affair, but Mladenovic captured the first set 6-4. In the second set, it looked like “Kiki” was on her way to some good eating as she was closing in on a bagel set up 5-0, but Bouchard had her own ideas to try and spoil the party. Two breaks and two holds gave the Canadian all the momentum, but the Bouchard of this year just could not take that momentum and run with it to get it to five-all as Mladenovic sealed the deal adding to her upsets at home. Next up for Kiki is Danka Kovinic.

Serena and Sock Cap Off a Stellar Day for the Americans

The upset of the day on the men’s side goes to Jack Sock for taking Grigor Dimitrov to the woodshed in a straight sets victory. In the first set tiebreaker, Dimitrov had his moments of brilliance, but Sock was too solid all-around to take the first set. After that, Sock continued to put the pedal to the metal and broke Dimitrov’s serve three times in the final two sets to knock off the tenth-seeded Bulgarian 7-6, 6-2, 6-3. Next up for Sock is fellow young gun Pablo Carreno Busta. Serena Williams throttled Andrea Hlavackova 6-2, 6-2. Just like Djokovic and Nadal, not much was needed from the world number one in order to defeat her opponent. The highlight of the day was actually Serena misjudging a lob and getting hit by it (video below). Next up for Serena will be Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany.

Petra Pushed to the Brink

The fourth-seeded Czech never makes it easy on herself does she. After what was a stellar clay court season by her standards, Kvitova looked to put her name down as one of the contenders for the French Open. However, that was nearly all put to a halt today escaping against Marina Erakovic in three sets. The stats were pretty even for each woman in the first set, but it was Kvitova’s power that took her to the lead in the first set with more winners. The second set was also a tight one, but the serving of Erakovic (77% first serves in- 74% of those points won), helped her take the second set. Kvitova figured it out though in the third serving much better and cutting down on her errors in the break-filled final set. She just had more break opportunities than Erakovic allowing to seal the one extra break she needed to take the match 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. Next up for Kvitova is Silvia Soler-Espinosa.

Update on the French:

The big news of the day was Kiki’s upset of Bouchard, but there was more than that for the home crowd. Two Frenchman, Richard Gasquet and Jeremy Chardy, won today. 20th-seeded Gasquet won in three sets over Germain Gigounon and will face Carlos Berlocq next. Chardy came back from a set down to take down Michael Berrer of Germany and will face 16th-seeded John Isner next. The women came up short today however, with only one win. Both Pauline Parmentier and Manon Arcangioli lost in straight sets to Silvia Soler-Espinosa and Irina Falconi respectively.

Update on the Americans:

American men went 2-1 today as Tim Smyczek was the only one to lose falling to 15th-seeded South African Kevin Anderson in straight sets. John Isner cruised to a straight sets victory in what could’ve been a tricky matchup against Italian Andreas Seppi. Isner had an exceptional serving day by his standards hitting 21 aces whilst not hitting a single double fault. American women tallied more wins than the men but only went 3-6 on the day. 16th-seeded Madison Keys took care of business against fellow countrywoman Varvara Lepchenko, and the other win was by Irina Falconi which was mentioned earlier. The losses for the American women came from Shelby Rogers (lost to 10th-seeded Andrea Petkovic), Taylor Townsend, Coco Vandeweghe, Christina McHale, and Alexa Glatch.  

Update on the Seeds:

Dimitrov was the only seeded player to lose today so it was mostly chalk on the men’s side. David Ferrer picked up his 300th win on clay in his career taking care of Lukas Lacko 6-1, 6-3, 6-1. The Spaniard takes on a his compatriot Daniel Gimeno-Traver in the next round. The struggling Marin Cilic was looking to reverse his fortunes this season with a second week showing at the French and that journey has started off nicely knocking off Robin Haase in straights. The only other seeded male to play and was not mentioned already was the Argentine Leonardo Mayer. He had his hands full with the young Jiri Vesely, and he completed the task with a tight five-set victory over the Czech.

Just like the men’s side, the seeded women were mostly chalk as well with only two losses on the day. The other loss came from Jelena Jankovic who was seeded 25th. The Serb lost to Sesil Karatantcheva in straight sets. Caroline Wozniacki made light work of Karin Knapp defeating her 6-3, 6-0. The Dane has a tricky matchup in the second round with Julia Goerges awaiting. 2009 French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova was taken to three sets against Kiki Bertens. The second set, the set she dropped, Bertens just did slightly better than the Russian on her return game allowing her to snatch the set. Zarina Diyas and Timea Bacsinszky won their matches in straight sets as well.

Matches to Watch For Tomorrow:

Martin Klizan - Gilles Simon: This matchup brings quite the contrasting styles between these two players. Klizan has power and can very much stay on the offensive throughout the whole match, but Simon’s defense and consistency should bother the Slovak tomorrow. Being the first up on Court 1 tomorrow, expect a small turnout at first, but as the match goes on, expect to urge on Simon especially if he’s down.

Dominic Thiem - Pablo Cuevas: Two players, one a rising star and the other one enjoying his best days as a professional, meet up on their favorite surface in what is going to be a fun match to watch tomorrow. Thiem is coming off of his first title in Nice just last week and is looking to carry the momentum with a deep run in Paris. Cuevas is looking to stamp his authority on being one of the tour’s premier clay-court specialists by trying to knock off the young gun. Expect this match to go at least four sets.

Fabio Fognini - Benoit Paire: The enigmatic and mysterious character of Fabio Fognini will face off against home favorite Benoit Paire. This match is one to watch for just for the fact that Fognini is in it, and we do not know what he’s going to bring to the table. With the Italians and French being major rivals in many of their major sports, this one is going be a fiery affair not just between the players, but between the fans as well.

Alize Cornet - Alexandra Dulgheru: After her comeback on Chatrier, Cornet will be up second on Court 1 right after Gilles Simon. With that in mind, the home fans will be there and raring to see the number one French woman in action again. This is a match Cornet will be favored in, but with the crowd right on her, her emotions could get the best of her and could implode. We’ll have to wait and see what happens