French Open: Stan Wawrinka crashes out, Novak Djokovic in round 2

Former French Open champion Stan Wawrinka continued to struggle with form and fitness as he was dumped out in the first round by Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on Monday, a defeat which will send his world ranking plummeting.

Wawrinka, who lost to Rafael Nadal in last year’s final and won the 2015 title, was beaten in a five-set thriller 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 by the Spanish world number 67 on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

The 33-year-old has been plagued by a knee injury and arrived at Roland Garros having won just one match on clay in Geneva last week, his first event in three months.

The defeat means that the three-time Grand Slam champion will slip from 30th in the world to outside the top 250 after the tournament, having failed to defend the ranking points he gained in 2017.

Projected rankings on June 11th of two players who contested a French Open semi-final last year:

Andy Murray - No 155
Stan Wawrinka - No 256
— Stuart Fraser (@stu_fraser) May 28, 2018

Djokovic storms into second round

Novak Djokovic opened his campaign with a comfortable 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Brazilian Rogerio Dutra Silva.

The 12-time Grand Slam winner was well below his best on Court Philippe Chatrier, though, and dropped serve three times against the world number 134 Dutra Silva.

Djokovic, whose form has been steadily improving since returning from a right elbow injury earlier this year, was still far too good for his opponent and will next play either David Ferrer or qualifier Jaume Munar.

“It was good to start this year with a win. I wasn’t at my best, he played with a lot of spin. I didn’t play very well, but I won in three sets,” said the 31-year-old.

The Serbian has not won a major title since completing the career Grand Slam at Roland Garros in 2016, and lost in last year’s quarter-finals to Dominic Thiem.

Grieving Bautista Agut wins just week after mother’s death

Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut reached the French Open second round, just a week after his mother passed away.

Ester Agut died last Monday but the world number 13 decided to come to Paris in honour of his mother.

“It’s been emotional for everything that has been happening to me this week,” said the 30-year-old after beating Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 1-6, 6-4, 6-4.

“It’s not easy to handle all this in your head.

“I thought it was best to come here, take a step forward, not hide and not stay at home. I wanted to continue fighting as I have always done.”

Earlier, Argentina’s Marco Trungelliti upset Australia’s Bernard Tomic 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. Trungelliti, world No 190, lost in the final round of Roland Garros qualifying on Friday before heading back to his Barcelona home. But after knowing that no other losers of the qualifying round was there to replace Nick Kyrgios as Tomic’s first-round opponent, Trungelliti jumped in a car and drove back to Paris on Sunday night.