French Open 2015 Results: Winners, Scores, Stats from Sunday's Singles Bracket
Chalk reigned supreme in the opening day of the 2015 French Open, with straight-set victories the norm for seeded players and very few upsets among the heavy slate of Sunday matches.
No. 2 Roger Federer and No. 3 Simona Halep set the tone as the top seeds in their respective brackets, each posting comprehensive straight-set wins. Those behind them followed suit. Throughout the 32 matches on Sunday's opening day of action, only four featured seeded individuals falling. None of them were seeds in the top 24.
Although few thrillers emerged from Day 1, a couple of highly touted contenders did have their hands full getting past the opening round at Roland Garros. Let's break down the most notable scores from Sunday.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
2015 French Open Day 1 Results
| No. 2 Roger Federer def. Alejandro Falla | 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 |
| No. 14 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga def. Christian Lindell | 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 |
| No. 8 Stan Wawrinka def. Marsel Ilhan | 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 |
| No. 5 Kei Nishikori def. Paul-Henri Mathieu | 6-3, 7-5, 6-1 |
| No. 19 Roberto Bautista Agut def. Florian Mayer | 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 |
| No. 24 Ernests Gulbis def. Igor Sijsling | 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) |
| No. 22 Philipp Kohlschreiber def. Go Soeda | 6-1, 6-0, 6-2 |
| Steve Johnson def. No. 26 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez | 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (1-7), 3-6, 6-3 |
| No. 3 Simona Halep def. Evgeniya Rodina | 7-5, 6-4 |
| No. 9 Ekaterina Makarova def. Louisa Chirico | 6-4, 6-2 |
| No. 7 Ana Ivanovic def. Yaroslava Shvedova | 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 |
| No. 21 Garbine Muguruza def. Petra Martic | 6-2, 7-5 |
| No. 13 Lucie Safarova def. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova | 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (11-9) |
| Polona Hercog def. No. 24 Shuai Peng | 6-0, 2-0 (retired) |
Complete scores available at RolandGarros.com.
No. 2 Roger Federer def. Alejandro Falla
History couldn't help but creep into the mind of Federer after seeing his draw for the French Open and noticing Alejandro Falla in the first round—the same foe who got a two-set lead on Federer at the 2009 Wimbledon before falling victim to nerves and losing.
A repeat wasn't in the cards Sunday. Federer made sure of that, running away with his Round 1 meeting with Falla to a 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 straight-set win.
The Swiss maestro began his quest for a second French Open title in style, dictating play from the get-go and making life difficult for Falla. The Colombian had the same number of unforced errors (26), but he converted on just 46 percent of his second serves.
Meanwhile, shots like this one provided by NBC Sports had Federer cruising to an easy win:
Federer was pegged with a serious chance to win his first Grand Slam in years entering play at Roland Garros, after he landed opposite Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray in the draw. While he has plenty of dangerous foes in his half of the bracket, Federer will have little trouble getting past them if he continues his play from Sunday.
Up next for the Swiss legend is a meeting with Marcel Granollers in Round 2, an opponent against whom Federer is 3-0 for his career. After dispatching a potential fearsome test in Round 1 quite easily, Federer should expect to do the same against Granollers.
No. 7 Ana Ivanovic def. Yaroslava Shvedova
Federer wasn't alone in having the chips stacked against him in Round 1, as No. 7 Ana Ivanovic had to overcome an even tougher test Sunday in toppling Yaroslava Shvedova.
On a Day 1 that produced easy victories for all of the top 10 seeds, Ivanovic was put to the test early on. She dropped the first set 4-6, only to rebound in dominating fashion and only drop two games in the final two must-win sets.
When Ivanovic trailed by one set early on, things didn't look promising for her, as her career record in such instances would indicate, as Kleine Biere of WTA noted:
That record threatened to doom her, but she bounced back to avoid that happening. Ivanovic won a whopping 76 percent of her first serves, took 16 more points than Shvedova and held her opponent to just 50 percent of net points won.
To say the comeback from Ivanovic came at a much-needed time would be an understatement. She began her year with a first-round upset at the Australian Open and had gone just 4-5 in tournaments since then.
But if Sunday's resounding comeback is any indication, Ivanovic is here to stay in the women's draw.
Steve Johnson def. No. 26 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez
Five-set thrillers were few and far between in Sunday's opening round of play, so much so that Steve Johnson's upset of No. 26 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez proved to be the only such contest. But it more than made up for the rest.
American tennis stars on the men's side have been hard to come by, but Johnson is emerging as perhaps the biggest threat to make a run at Roland Garros. This comes after he took the opening first two sets against Garcia-Lopez, only to drop a third-set tiebreaker and go the full distance.
In fact, Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times noted it was the only match of the day that even went to four sets:
To be fair, Garcia-Lopez made a valiant surge to even make something of the match. His 36 winners were 30 fewer than his opponent, while Johnson held a 9-4 advantage in aces and won 79 percent of his net points.
Meanwhile, Garcia-Lopez converted just 57 percent of his points at the net and couldn't muster up enough energy in the fifth set to overcome Johnson, who saved just enough in the tank for a late run to victory.
Things won't get any easier for Johnson in Round 2, as he will have to face 24th-seeded Ernests Gulbis. But after overcoming the odds in gripping fashion Sunday, Johnson will have a starving American men's tennis contingent rooting for him.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
