The various rain breaks caused a stop-start to a number of matches. Despite the rain, it was a decent start for the seeds with the exception of top seed Sara Errani, who fell to Monica Puig in a three-setter.
The match between Sloane Stephens and Donna Vekic was interrupted by rain before it was postponed to the next day at the end of the second set. And the remaining round one match between Elena Vesnina and Saisai Zheng was likewise postponed.
Puig upsets the top seed
It was a topsy-turvy first with both players struggling to hold serve. Errani eventually pulled through to take the first set. The second set was a lot tighter with Puig getting into her groove and taking the advantage with an early break for 3-2. The top seed kept in touch but Puig was too strong as she found the break once more right at the end to force a third set.
The Italian was in all sorts of trouble against the 2014 champion who threatened at all of Errani’s service games and the top seed soon found herself 0-5 down. Despite coming through a marathon game to hold for 1-5, it was all over Errani as Puig completed a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 upset victory to progress to the second round.
Other seeds progress
Third seed and defending champion, Samantha Stosur came through her match against qualifier Lauren Davis in straight sets defeating her 6-3, 7-5. The Australian got a crucial break before clinching a tight first set. Davis fought hard in the second set managing to break back Stosur twice but herself was broken thrice as the defending champion closed out the victory continuing her good run on clay.
Another Frenchwoman advanced to the second round following the footsteps of Kristina Mladenovic the day before. Caroline Garcia dropped just five games in her match against Kirsten Flipkens completing a 6-1, 6-2 victory in less than an hour.
Timea Babos, seeded eight, brushed aside Olga Govortsova in slightly over an hour overcoming the Belarusian 6-4, 6-1.
Other results
The other Frenchwoman left in the draw, Pauline Parmentier also progressed after prevailing over a tough first set against an aggressive Zhang Shuai amidst the rain breaks. She then raced through the second set as Zhang faded away for a 7-6(3), 6-1 win.
Qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni had to endure three sets before coming through 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 against veteran Qiang Wang. Likewise, Zarina Diyas needed three sets, showing grit to come from back from a set down to defeat lucky loser Shelby Rogers, who replaced Monica Niculescu, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Kateryna Bondarenko went up against Heather Watson and the lower ranked Bondarenko grabbed the first set. The Ukrainian ran out of steam getting crushed 6-0 in the second set as Watson came to live. The Brit could not keep it up though as Bondarenko regrouped to finish the match 6-3, 0-6, 6-1.
Day three
Third day action at Strasbourg will start off with the round one match between Vesnina and Zheng. It will be followed by the completion of Stephens’ match. The American was cruising 5-2 in the first set and had set points before Vekic fought back brilliantly to win five games in row to edge the set 7-5. Stephens found her focus again to take the second set before another rain delay forced the match to be postponed.
The rest of the day will see four round two matches with Frenchwomen, Mladenovic and Garcia looking to move on at Strasbourg. Stosur will continue her title defense against Su-Wei Hsieh. Alla Kudryavtseva, who upset fourth seed Alizé Cornet, rounds off second round action on day three.