It was an eventful second day at the French Open as the first round continued. Second seed Rafael Nadal and third seed Dominic Thiem were thie biggest names to advance while fourth seed Daniil Medvedev and eighth seed Gael Monfils were among the seven seeded players to lose.
Nadal, Thiem breeze into second round
Nadal began his quest for a record-tying 20th Grand Slam title with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Egor Gerasimov. The Spaniard was perfect on break points, converting all five of his chances while hitting 32 winners en route to his 14th straight set win in the opening round in Paris.
"It is a totally different Roland Garros", he said after the match. "Totally different than we are used to...but for me this one is as special as every one at Roland Garros. I am going to keep trying my best. I am happy to be in the second round after a good start and now is the moment to go back to the hotel, have a good practice tomorrow and try to be ready for the second round."
Thiem outclassed Marin Cilic, defeating the Croatian 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in two hours, six minutes. The Austrian knocked Cilic out on his way to the US Open title last month and is now 25-6 lifetime at Roland Garros as he seeks his second straight major title.
"I am really happy with my first round. I was facing another great champion today. The transition to the clay and the cold conditions worked out pretty well. I love the conditions because I am from Austria. I know how it is to play in these cold conditions and back in juniors and when I started to play Futures, it was always like that, 10 to 15 degrees and cold.
"I love it when it is not too fast, so I can be a little bit baseline and make a lot of returns in the court. I feel well and I felt well from the first moment I came here again this year. I am looking forward to an exciting second round."
Giustino, Moutet play historic first-round match
Out on Court 14, Lorenzo Giustino picked up his first career ATP Tour-level victory with a 0-6, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (3), 2-6, 18-16 win over Corentin Moutet in the second-longest match in tournament history, lasting six hours, five minutes.
The fifth set lasted three hours with world number 167 Giustino taking a 3-0 lead in the decider, holding a match point at 8-7 with Moutet serving. The Frenchman served for the match at 14-13 and 15-14 only to be broken each time.
At 16-16, Giustino rallied from 15-40 on his own serve and held two match points in the next game only to see Moutet save the first, but not the second after a clever forehand forced the Frenchman to lunge for and dump into the net.
"It means a lot for me. I think I improved in these last two years", Giustino said after the marathon victory. "I believe in myself that I can make something better than I was before. I'm trying to improve and in all the aspects, [the] mental aspect will be one of the thing I improved the most.
"What's funny is we were watching the fifth set of [Jurij] Rodionov and [Jeremy] Chardy and I said 'No, there is no tie-break in the fifth [set]?'. I said 'no way, man', and so my coaches said 'you know that you will go like 12-10 or something like that in the fifth'. I always do like this in my matches and look what happened. It's funny."
When asked if he is physically hurting, the Italian cracked a smile and said "no, no, no, I feel perfect. Tomorrow i'll go run a bit because I think i'm too fresh."
Moutet would only say "my feelings I don't know. We played a really long match. I don't feel anything in my body right now. I feel empty."
Medvedev, Monfils among several seeds upset
Marton Fucsovics scored his first career top ten win in 15 tries after a 6-4, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-1 victory over Medvedev, who remains winless at Roland Garros in four career appearances. Monfils was outclassed by Alexander Bublik, losing 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 in a match that featured 14 breaks of serve.
14th seed Fabio Fognini was ousted by Mikhail Kukushkin 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (1), 6-0 while 19th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime fell to Yoshihito Nishioka 7-5, 6-3, 6-3, 26th seed Filip Krajinovic was stunned countryman Nikola Milojevic 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 and Tennys Sandgren outlasted 29th seed Hubert Hurkacz 7-5, 2-6, 4-6, 7-6 (1), 11-9.
Khachanov, Carreno Busta headline other winners
15th seed Karen Khachanov eased past Kamil Majchrzak 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-3 while 17th seed Pablo Carreno Busta continued his good form with a 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 over John Millman. 28th seed Casper Ruud had no problems with Yuichi Sugita, winning 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 while 30th seed Jan-Lennard Struff battled past Frances Tiafoe 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-3.
Jack Sock defeated Reilly Opelka 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 while lucky loser Diego Galan came from behind to defeat Cameron Norrie 4-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1. Hugo Gaston claimed victory in an all-French affair against Maxime Janvier 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, but another Frenchman wasn't so fortunate as Adrian Mannarino was routed by Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-4, 6-3, 6-0.
Aljaz Bedene slipped past Arthur Rinderknech 6-2, 6-7 (9), 6-4, 6-4 while Tommy Paul eased by James Duckworth 6-2, 6-3, 6-2. Mackenzie McDonald got by qualifier Steven Diez 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 while Daniel Altmaier defeated Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-4 and Pierre-Hugues Herbert had no trouble with Michael Mmoh, winning 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.
Finally, Lorenzo Sonego edged Emilio Gomez 6-7 (8), 6-3, 6-1, 6-7 (4), 6-3, Jiri Vesely eliminated Liam Broady 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2, Pedro Martinez eased past Aleksandar Vukic 7-5, 6-4, 6-0 and Guido Pella knocked out Salvatore Caruso 7-6 (6), 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-4.