Advertisement

How often do big stars lose in the first round of Grand Slams?

• Much has been made about Serena Williams' streak of never losing in the first round of a Grand Slam, which ended Tuesday after a stunning upset loss to Virginie Razzano. That got us thinking: How common is it for star players to lose so early in a Slam?

Obviously, it tends to happen early and late in careers and rarely during a prime. Ivan Lendl is a good example. He lost in the first round of majors three times in his first four years on tour. He lost four times in his final two years. In the 11 years in between, he didn't lose once.

Here's a sampling of players and their total opening-round defeats: Maria Sharapova (3), Kim Clijsters (2), Steffi Graf (3), Martina Navratilova (5), Roger Federer (6), Novak Djokovic (2), Pete Sampras (7), Andre Agassi (9), John McEnroe (5), Jimmy Connors (7). Rafael Nadal has yet to lose a first-round match. Bjorn Borg and Chris Evert never did. (She didn't lose a second-round match either.)

• It was a tough day for American women in Paris. After a 10-0 start at the French Open, both Serena Wiliams and Jamie Hampton lost on Tuesday. Hampton retired in the second set against Aranxta Rus with a reported back injury.

• The clock hasn't struck midnight yet. Brian Baker's comeback fairly tale will get the biggest stage on Wednesday with a match on Court Philippe Chatrier. His second-round matchup pits him against the 11th-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon.

• Ivo Karlovic's straight-set loss to Eduardo Schwank included a 6-0 second set. It was only the third time the big-serving Karlovic was bageled in his career. After, he tweeted:

• Donald Young lost his first round match in three sets to Grigor Dimitrov 7-6, 6-1, 6-1. After losing the first set tiebreak, Young only won 23 points in the remaining two sets. Despite the loss, Young and his 2-12 record are still likely to make the Olympic team due to the absence of Mardy Fish. Methinks the USTA can't be too happy about that.

• Ignoring the Serena upset, it was a relatively tame first round on both the men's and women's sides. Seeds went 54-10 in the opening round, with only five seeds on each sheet dropping matches. The men's losers were Feliciano Lopez (15) to Florent Serra, Alexandr Dolgopolov (16) to Sergiy Stakhovsky, Radek Stepanek (23) to David Goffin, Andy Roddick (26) to Nicolas Mahut and Jurgen Melzer (30) to Michael Berrer. Seeded women to lose: Sabine Lisicki (12) to Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Roberta Vinci (17) to Sofia Arvidsson, Mona Barthel (30) to Lauren Davis, Monica Niculescu (32) to Nina Bratchikova and, of course, Serena.

Daniel Salcetti contributed to this post.