French Open results 2017: Top seed Angelique Kerber out, Venus Williams advances on Day 1

The French Open got off to a bang on Sunday, as the top woman in the field, Angelique Kerber, found herself eliminated.

Angelique Kerber became the first women’s top seed to lose in the opening round at Roland Garros in the Open Era on Sunday. Kerber lost convincingly to Ekaterina Makarova, 6-2, 6-2 and is now out of the French Open.

Makarova converted on six of 14 break point attempts and had 19 unforced errors to Kerber’s 25. She won 61 percent of her first serves and, crucially, nearly 50 percent of her second serves. The unseeded Russian moves on to the second round.

Venus Williams, the tenth seed for the women and the only Williams sister in this tournament due to her sister’s pregnancy, made it past her opening round, besting Qiang Wang, 6-4, 7-6(3).

Also on the women’s side, Petra Kvitova won her first match since being stabbed during a burglary in her home in December. Kvitova, 27, bested American Julia Boserup, 6-3, 6-2, to advance to the second round of Roland Garros.

Kvitova suffered career-threatening injuries to her left hand in the attack, and many thought she might not play in Paris. She is the No. 15 seed.

Also in seeded women’s action, Timea Bacsinszky, the No. 30 seed, bested unseeded Sara Sorribes Tormo in her opening match, 6-1, 6-2. Roberta Vinci, the No. 31 seed, lost a three-set match to Monica Puig, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

On the men’s side, the top seeds in action were sixth seed Dominic Thiem, also a favorite in the tournament, and 11th seed Grigor Dimitrov. Both players took straight-set victories, Thiem besting the very tough Bernard Tomic, 6-4, 6-0, 6-2, and Dimitrov besting Stephane Robert, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4.

The top four seeds on the men’s side — Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal — will all be in action on the tournament’s second day, Monday.

Nadal, the proclaimed “King of Clay”, is favored to win though not by much. He is nearly unstoppable on the clay surface but has slowed down in recent years due to injury and age.

Further results from Sunday can be found in the men’s singles bracket here and women’s singles bracket here. And below you can find the results from singles matches involving seeded competition.

Men’s Singles

No. 6 Dominic Thiem def. Bernard Tomic, 6-4, 6-0, 6-2
No. 11 Grigor Dimitrov def. Stephane Robert, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4
No. 16 Lucas Pouille def. Julien Benneteau, 7-6(6), 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
No. 19 Albert Ramos-Vinolas def. Marius Copil, 6-7(7), 6-1, 6-4, 6-2
No. 20 Pablo Carreno Busta def. Florian Mayer, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2
No. 23 Ivo Karlovic def. Stefanos Tsitsipas, 7-6(5), 7-5, 6-4
No. 25 Steve Johnson vs. Yuichi Sugita — Play suspended (6-3, 6-3, 6-7(4), 2-4)
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez def. No. 26 Gilles Muller, 7-6(4), 6-7(2), 6-2, 6-2

Women’s Singles

Ekaterina Makarova def. No. 1 Angelique Kerber, 6-2, 6-2
No. 6 Dominika Cibulkova def. Lara Arruabarrena, 6-2, 6-1
No. 8 Svetlana Kuznetsova def. Christina McHale, 7-5, 6-4
No. 10 Venus Williams def. Qiang Wang, 6-4, 7-6(3)
No. 15 Petra Kvitova def. Julia Boserup, 6-3, 6-2
Cagla Buyukakcay def. No. 22 Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, 6-3, 6-3
No. 30 Timea Bacsinszky def. Sara Sorribes Tormo, 6-1, 6-2
Monica Puig def. No. 31 Roberta Vinci, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2