French Open 2012: Players Who Must Step Up Their Game in Round 2

On the road to glory, a few bumps in the road are forgotten. But for several players in the first round of the French Open, those bumps were almost the end of the road entirely.

Perhaps they dropped an early set. Perhaps they were close to digging themselves a hole they wouldn't have been able to escape. Or maybe they just didn't look like themselves.

Whatever the case may be, I've identified three players who need to pick up their games in a hurry if they want to continue to advance at Roland Garros.

Victoria Azarenka

A dropped first set. A 4-0 deficit in the second set and a point away from being down 5-0. Sixty unforced errors against Alberta Brianti, the 105th-ranked player in the world. The possibility that the top-seeded woman would lose for the first time in the first round at the French Open since the tournament started inviting foreign-born players in 1925.

That's what Azarenka, the WTA's top-ranked player, had to offer on Monday.

Yes, she won 12 of the final 14 games to escape with a 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 victory, but for a player of her caliber, it should have never been that close.

Thankfully, her resolve held despite the adversity. However, she was close to giving in and hanging it up in this one, as noted by the Associated Press:

"

"Sometimes I felt it was not my day," she explained. "Sometimes I thought, 'Yeah, maybe I still fight, I still have a chance.' Sometimes it was like, 'You know what? Forget it. I don't want to do it.'"

"

In the end, she did it. She was seemingly able to flip a switch and turn it on during a match where it was clear she didn't have her A-game. A top player can do that in the first round.

But no player can do that as the competition stiffens in the later rounds. Azarenka better find her groove and she better find it quick, or she'll be one of this tournament's biggest disappointments.

Gilles Simon

Ryan Harrison is a very good young player. As a 20-year-old, he's the 56th-ranked player on the ATP Tour and is the next big thing in American men's tennis.

But Gilles Simon is the 11th-ranked player in the world and is playing in front of his native country's fans. He simply shouldn't fall behind a player like Harrison like he did.

Yet, there he was after dropping the first set, awaiting a Harrison serve on double-set point. Had he gone to two-sets-to-none, there is no question in my mind Harrison would have won the match.

Simon simply had no answers for him early on.

But instead Simon rallied, won the second set, found his groove, watched Harrison melt down and promptly won the match, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-1.

Simon's resiliency is to be admired, but a player with more composure than Harrison would have rebounded after giving away the second set. Maybe Simon was feeling the pressure of the French crowd's hopes, I don't know, but he can't afford to start another match as slowly as he did this one.

If he does, he can replace those hopes with French ire, instead.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Yes, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga cruised after the first set, taking the next three 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. He turned it on, I get it.

But how in the hell does the fifth-ranked player in the world drop the first set 6-1 to Andrey Kuznetsov, who is ranked 159th in the world and hasn't played on the main tour once this year?

That shouldn't happen. It boggles the mind, frankly.

Was Tsonga feeling a bit of pressure from his fellow Frenchman, hence leading to his sluggish start?

Maybe.

Is Kuznetsov a professional player and thus capable of making a sluggish top-ranked player look silly, if only briefly?

Absolutely.

Can Tsonga afford to start that sluggish moving forward as the level of play in this tournament increases?

Not in the least. Another early showing like that could be fatal for France's best hope.

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