PARIS — The French Open’s first day featured all the postmatch spectacle of a Grand Slam tournament’s final day.
There were the grown men in yellow T-shirts and beige shorts scurrying onto center court with a wooden table to hold a trophy, the speech to the crowd by one of the players, and the dozens of photographers jockeying for position behind a baseline.
Except instead of a celebration of a new champion, as will happen in two weeks, all of Sunday’s fuss was about saluting a departing one. Yes, they feted the match’s loser: Gustavo Kuerten, the owner of three French Open titles and a former No. 1. He is now ranked outside the top 1,000 and is retiring at age 31 because of chronic hip injuries.
“This particular tournament is really like home for me,” said Kuerten, who plans to play doubles in Paris but will never play singles again.
He was beaten 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 by 18th-seeded Paul-Henri Math-ieu, hardly a surprising result on a day when surprises were few and far between.
There was one relatively big one, though: No. 16 Carlos Moya, the 1998 French Open champion but someone with a .500 record on clay this season, lost 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-7 (1), 4-6, 6-3 to qualifier Eduardo Schwank. Schwank never had played at a major and now boasts a 4-5 career record in tour-level matches.
Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic dropped his opening set before recovering to advance in four. No. 7-seeded James Blake beat Rainer Schuettler 6-4, 6-1, 7-6 (3) to make the U.S. men 1-0 so far — a year after they went 0-9 at the clay-court major.
“We all feel like, you know, last year was an aberration that should never happen again,” Blake said.
Serena Williams, the only past French Open winner in the women’s field, won in straight sets, as did 2007 runner-up Ana Ivanovic.
Williams ceded the first two games before winning 6-2, 6-1 in a drizzle against 61st-ranked Ashley Harkleroad.
French Open
A look at the French Open on Sunday:
Upsets: Men: No. 16 Carlos Moya, No. 32 Janko Tipsarevic. Women: No. 15 Nicole Vaidisova, No. 24 Virginie Razzano.
On court today: No. 1 Roger Federer vs. Sam Querrey, No. 2 Rafael Nadal vs.
Thomaz Bellucci, No. 3 Jelena Jankovic vs. Monica Niculescu, No. 8 Venus Williams vs. Tzipi Obziler.
Stat of the day: 10-0. Serena Williams’ edge in aces during her 6-2, 6-1 victory over Ashley Harkleroad.
Quote of the day: “He’s a very positive, very positive guy, great personality, and just everybody loves him. I don’t even know one guy who says something bad about him.” — Djokovic, talking about Gustavo Kuerten, the three-time French Open champion who played the last singles match of his career Sunday, a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 loss to No. 18 Paul-Henri Mathieu.
