FRENCH OPEN : First round in review

12 Russians and 3 Romanians out . 11 Russians and 2 Romanians advance

There were three full days in Paris, with great winnings and unexpected surprises.

So let's start with the men's tour.

Unfortunatelly, Dmitry Tursunov and Igor Kunitsyn from Russia lost their matches. Tursunov was defended by a player from the country which is the master of clay: Spain. He lost to Daniel Gimeno-Traver, after a long time while he was not able to play. The Russian won only 3 games, the Spanish winning, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1. Igor Kunitsyn, who has to be congratulated because the last week-end his wife gave birth to a healthy cute kid, played against another Spanish, a top 10 player, who was the finalist in the Madrid Masters, Fernando Verdasco. He was defended, 4-6, 2-6, 2-6.

Mikhail Youzhny and Teimuraz Gabashvili from Russia and Victor Hanescu from Romania won and will play in the 2nd round in the most important clay tournament.

In the women's tour we already can talk about surprises, or, better said, about one big surprise: Dinara Safina. Last year's finalist, the Russian lost to Kimiko Date Krumm in 3 sets, 6-3, 4-6, 5-7. Safina was injured since Australian Open, but came back at Stuttgart. She was not in form since then and, after Madrid, she separated by the coach who made her no.1 WTA, Zeliko Krajan. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Anastasia Pivovarova, Vera Zvonareva, Alisa Kleybanova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Maria Kirilenko, Alexandra Dulgheru, Elena Dementieva and Nadia Petrova won their matches and have the chance to play in the second round, while Ivanova, Alla Kudryavtseva, Anna Chakvetadze, Bychkova, Ekaterina Makarova, Elena Vesnina, Sorana Cirstea, Simona Halep and Ioana Raluca Olaru stopped in the 1st round.

Well, it's hard to see that Dinara can't play like she did last year, when she won at Madrid and Rome and played the final at Australian Open and French Open. She is and she will be always my favourite and I'm really sorry for her and because she doesn't work anymore with Zeliko. I really liked him and I think he is one of the best. On the other side, I'm happy for Svetlana, for Alexandra, Victor, Mikhail and of course for all the Romanian and Russian players and I hope they will make a good game and a good result at this tournament.