Cilic bites the dust

Croat first seeded player to be eliminated at French Open; Shahar Peer too ousted

Marin Cilic became the first seeded player to be eliminated from the French Open,losing to Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain 7-6 5,6-4,6-4 Sunday in the first round. The 19th-seeded Cilic,who reached the fourth round at the Australian Open,is a former top-10 player. But he had 67 unforced errors in the match and was broken five times.

For Ramirez Hidalgo,it was only his fourth win in 15 Grand Slams. Besides reaching the fourth round at the 2006 French Open,the Spaniard lost in the first round in each of his other 13 appearances at the four biggest tournaments on the tennis circuit. Its my greatest victory this season,thats for sure, the 33-year-old Hidalgo said. I would not say this is the beginning of a new career,because Im too old for this,but its a kind of relief.

Seventh-seeded David Ferrer had no such problems,advancing to the second round by defeating Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 6-3,6-3,6-1. No. 14 Stanislas Wawrinka,No. 17 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France,No. 30 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain and No. 31 Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine also advanced. I expected,like every year,the first match not to be too easy, said Wawrinka,who beat Augustin Gensse of France 4-6,6-3,6-4,6-2. I was a bit slow. I took some time before I got into the match. In the first round its never so easy.

Stosur advances

On the womens side,Sam Stosur opened her bid to return to the French Open final by beating Iveta Benesova 6-2,6-3 in the first round. Playing in the first match on Court Philippe Chatrier,the eighth-seeded Australian dropped her serve in the opening game but then reeled off four straight games to take the lead for good. Stosur reached the final at Roland Garros last year but lost to Francesca Schiavone. In 2009,Stosur reached the French Open semifinals. Obviously I thought of last years last match, Stosur said. It was nice to get out there again and,of course,if you can play on any court here youd want to play on that one.

She next plays Simona Halep of Romania,who became the first player to reach the second round by beating Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia 6-2,6-1 on Court 17. I dont think I have to necessarily prove anything. I think having made semis and a final,I think that kind of proves that I have been able to back it up and it wasnt a fluke the first time, Stosur said. Of course Id love to go a little bit further this year,but I think its more just wanting to achieve that rather than I have to do it because of X,Y,and Z.

The first seeded womens player to lose was Shahar Peer. The 19th-seeded Israeli lost to Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain 7-6 4,6-1. No. 10 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia,No. 17 Julia Goerges of Germany and No. 32 Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria also advanced. Today was a little bit windy,so the ball was swirling around. But I just played the best I could in these kind of circumstances and did my job, said Jankovic,who beat Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-3,6-1.

Hewitt withdraws

The French Open is the only one of the four Grand Slam tournaments to start on a Sunday,and there were 32 matches scheduled on eight courts. Less than an hour before play began,two-time Grand Slam champion Lleyton Hewitt withdrew. He was replaced by Marc Gicquel,one of nine French men playing on Sunday. Gicquel lost to Albert Montanes of Spain 6-4,6-4,6-2.