PARIS — Much to her dismay, Li Na is familiar with this feeling.
She earns a Grand Slam championship, is heralded at home, then shows up at subsequent major tournaments and seemingly forgets how to win.
Happened in 2011, after her French Open triumph made her China’s first player with a Grand Slam singles title. Happened again Tuesday, when Li was seeded second at Roland Garros but lost to someone ranked 103rd in the first round, not quite four months removed from winning the Australian Open.
“I didn’t follow the game plan,” Li said. “Didn’t have any idea how to play.”
Her 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 exit against Kristina Mladenovic of France in front of a partisan crowd on a cloudy, windy Day 3 came about 16 hours after the men’s Australian Open champion, third-seeded Stan Wawrinka, was beaten in Paris — making this French Open already unlike any Grand Slam tournament in history.
It’s the first time that the men’s and women’s singles champions from the previous major lost in the first round.
“Nobody say if you (are) No. 2 in the world, you have to win all the matches. I mean, this is tennis,” said Li, who works with Carlos Rodriguez, former coach of four-time French Open titlist Justine Henin.
For an opening match at a major, the “tension is different,” she added. “Always tough to pass the first round.”
Top players, even the likes of Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams, frequently talk about being particularly jittery at the start of a Grand Slam tournament, even against clearly outclassed competition.
They notice, to be sure, when folks such as Li or Wawrinka depart quickly.
This French Open has seen some rough going for several past major champions and other highly seeded players, and the second round has yet to begin.
No. 11 Grigor Dimitrov, considered an up-and-coming threat by many, lost to Ivo Karlovic; two seeded men, No. 16 Tommy Haas and No. 21 Nicolas Almagro, quit during the first set because of injuries; past Grand Slam titles winner Lleyton Hewitt also lost.
Murray moves on
Moments after Andy Murray won his first match at the French Open in two years, he got an offer from a coach.
Or at least from someone who might be a coach someday.
Murray returned to Roland Garros on Tuesday after missing last year because of a back injury. He advanced to the second round by beating Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
Before he walked off court, former player Fabrice Santoro interviewed Murray in front of the crowd at Court Suzanne Lenglen. One of the questions had to do with Murray’s lack of a coach, with Santoro saying he had a list of candidates.
“Are you one of them, or not?” Murray asked.
“You want my card? I’ll give you my card,” Santoro responded, handing his business card to Murray.
The seventh-seeded Murray has been without a coach since he parted ways with Ivan Lendl in March. But with Lendl by his side, Murray finally won a major title at the 2012 U.S. Open. Then he won the big one nearly a year later, becoming the first British man to win the Wimbledon title since Fred Perry in 1936.
At the French Open, Murray’s best performance was a spot in the semifinals in 2011. He reached the quarterfinals in 2012 before missing last year’s edition.
His next match at Roland Garros will be against Marinko Matosevic, a 28-year-old Australian who on Tuesday won a Grand Slam match for the first time in 13 attempts.
“I saw the end of the match,” Murray said of his next opponent. “I think he lost 11 or 12 in a row. … Yeah, he’s a good ball striker. He’s had some good wins on the tour as a result of maybe being a bit up and down.”
Matosevic advanced by beating Dustin Brown of Germany 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-7 (1), 7-5.
It was only his second match at Roland Garros. He also lost in the first round at the Australian Open five times, and three times each at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
“It got pretty demoralizing at some stages. I had some tough draws,” Matosevic said. “When I did have my chances, I just couldn’t quite do it. Just really happy to do it today.”
Murray said Matosevic was good guy, calling him “interesting character, that’s for sure.” He said the Australian is always ready to make others laugh.
His wild side has earned Matosevic the nickname “Mad Dog.”
“From the time I have spent with him,” Murray said. “I’d say that’s a good name for him.”
Rough week for Wozniacki
PARIS — About a week after her engagement to two-time major golf champion Rory McIlroy was called off, Caroline Wozniacki exited the French Open in the first round.
The 13th-seeded Wozniacki, a former No. 1 and the runner-up at the 2009 U.S. Open, lost 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-2 on Tuesday to 64th-ranked Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium. It’s the first time Denmark’s Wozniacki was beaten in her opener at Roland Garros since 2007, her debut at the clay-court Grand Slam tournament.
At the outset of Wozniacki’s post-match news conference, the moderator said: “Caroline would like to make a statement, and after that she will answer questions about today’s match.”
Then Wozniacki spoke briefly before taking questions, never mentioning McIlroy by name or their scrapped wedding plans.
“I don’t really want to talk about my personal life. I hope that you all can understand that,” she began, and put her left hand to her chest. “The only thing I really have to say is that, you know, (I want to) thank everybody for their support and sweet messages.”
She continued, shrugging her shoulders: “What happens in my personal life, I just want to really keep that between my closest people around me. You know, I just have to move on.”
Last week, McIlroy was close to tears while telling reporters that he and Wozniacki decided to split only days after sending out wedding invitations. They began dating in 2011 and were engaged this past New Year’s Eve.
On Sunday, McIlroy won a European Tour event in England.
Wozniacki was ranked No. 1 in 2010, and she’s been as far as the semifinals four times at Grand Slam tournaments. That includes the U.S. Open in 2009, when she beat Wickmayer at that stage before losing to Kim Clijsters in the final. Clijsters has been working with Wickmayer lately.
By wire sources