French Open 2012: Victoria Azarenka Survives Scare in First Round

The second day of the French Open definitely brought a little more drama, some upsets and quite a few close calls.

Probably the biggest almost-surprise of the day was No. 1 Victoria Azarenka needing three sets to beat Alberta Brianti 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-2. Azarenka trailed 4-0 in the second set before rallying for the huge comeback win.

Things weren't nearly as tough for No. 7 Li Na who defeated Sorana Cirstea 6-1, 6-1.

No. 15 Dominika Cibulkova beat Kristina Mladenovic 6-1, 6-1, and No. 8 Marion Bartoli beat Kaolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-3.

Jie Zheng survived a scare from Alize Cornet for a 6-4, 6-4 win.

No. 3 Aggie Radwanska crushed Bojana Jovanovski 6-1, 6-0, while No. 19 Jelena Jankovic held off Patricia Mayr-Achleitner 1-6, 6-1, 7-5.

American qualifier Lauren Davis upset No. 30 Mona Barthel 6-1, 6-1 and Christina McHale, Vania King and Sloane Stephens were also winners. Stephens defeated Ekaterina Makarova 6-4, 7-6 (6).

Bethanie Mattek-Sands upset No. 12 Sabine Lisicki, and Sofia Arvidsson upset No. 17 Roberta Vinci 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

Also, Nina Bratchikova upset No. 32 Monica Niculescu, 0-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Things went much smoother on the men's side.

No. 1 Novak Djokovic beat Potito Starace, 7-6 (3) 6-3, 6-1. No. 3 Roger Federer beat Tobias Kamke, 6-2, 7-5, 6-3.

In one of the top matches of the day, No. 11 Gilles Simon beat Ryan Harrison, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-1.

Arnaud Clement also beat Alex Bogomolov Jr. in a thriller, 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 5-4 ret.

Also, No. 28 Viktor Troicki held off Thomaz Bellucci, 4-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.

Brian Baker, No. 10 John Isner, No. 31 Kevin Anderson, No. 7 Thomas Berdych, No. 16 Alexandr Dolgopolov, No. 25 Bernard Tomic, No. 22 Andreas Seppi and No. 19 Milos Raonic were all winners.

The only seed to fall was No. 23 Radek Stepanek, who lost to David Goffin, 6-2, 4-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.