French Open 2012: Not Many Surprises on Day 1

It was a somewhat quiet first day at the French Open. Things went pretty much as expected.
However, there was still a bit of drama.

No. 5 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga lost the opening set to Andrey Kuznetsov before rallying for a 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 win. No. 9 Juan Martin del Potro pulled out a 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-1 win over Albert Montanes.

There were only two mild upsets on the men's side. No. 26 Andy Roddick was beaten 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 by Nicolas Mahut. No. 30 Jurgen Melzer lost to Michael Berrer, 6-7 (5), 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3.

Juan Carlos Ferrero, Fabio Fognini, No. 14 Fernando Verdasco, No. 21 Marin Cilic and No. 18 Stan Wawrinka were among the winners on the men's side.

In women's action, the top story was Venus Williams. She overcame a scare from 19-year-old Paula Ormaechea to advance, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.

All of the seeded women won their matches. No. 6 Sam Stosur dominated Elena Baltacha, 6-4, 6-0; No. 13 Ana Ivanovic beat Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino, 6-1, 6-1; No. 26 Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Mirjana Lucic, 6-1, 6-3 and No. 10 Angelique Kerber beat Shuai Zhang, 6-3, 6-4.

No. 20 Lucie Safarova defeated Anastasiya Yakimova, 6-2, 6-0, and No. 21 Sara Errani rallied for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Casey Dellacqua.

In a feel-good American story, Melanie Oudin beat Johanna Larsson, 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the second round. American Alexa Glatch also won, as did Irina Falconi. Shahar Peer also won her opening-round match.

It was a solid opening day, but there are plenty of great matches scheduled for tomorrow. Things should get much more exciting over the next few days.