French Open Day 2

The second day of action at the French Open was actually less exciting than the first - there were no real upsets to speak of today at all. There were some very close matches, but all of the seeded players made it through, with just a couple of exception. Tommy Robredo lost, which is something of a surprise, but he had a very tough first round match against Viktor Troicki, and he also has been having some trouble with injury. On the other hand, Feliciano Lopez's lost to Julian Reister of Germany was something of a surprise - or at least, it would have been, if Lopez had won more than one match in his last six appearances at Roland Garros.

There was nearly a massive upset - Richard Gasquet was up two sets and a break on Andy Murray, but the recent exertion of winning his first title in a couple years eventually caught up with him. He wilted, and after that he was never in the match again. This is the second time that Murray has come back from two sets to love down against Gasquet! Unbelievable. Shame for Gasquet, who has drawn Murray, Youzhny, and Nadal in his last three Grand Slam first rounds. Give him a qualifier at Wimbledon, come on! Cut the guy a break.

Kei Nishikori also came back from two sets to love down, and so did Carsten Ball! Quite a day, despite the lack of any really noteworthy upsets. Everybody who was supposed to show up today did so.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, we'll have the last third of the first round in action. Nadal is back on court, as is Justine Henin. So two of the favorites are back on the site of their biggest victories - or at least close by. Rafael Nadal is shockingly out on Suzanne Langlen, while Andy Roddick and Jarkko Nieminen are second on Philippe Chartrier. It may be Roddick's only clay-court match this year, so I guess the organizers wanted to draw attention to it. Or maybe they didn't want everyone to see Nadal demolish French teenager Gianni Mina.

Also, keep an eye on the performances of Fernando Verdasco, David Ferrer, Maria Sharapova, and Dinara Safina. And there are guaranteed to be two US winners, because Sam Querrey is playing Robbie Ginepri and Bethanie Mattek-Sands is playing Vania King. So we're going to go at least 2-2 tomorrow!

Other matches to watch include Lleyton Hewitt and Jeremy Chardy, Jurgen Melzer and Dudi Sela, and Marion Bartoli against Maria Elena Camerin. With Amelie Mauresmo out of the picture, Bartoli is the best hope for the French Open. So best of luck, and we'll see how tomorrow goes!