Wawrinka struggles, Radwanska sails thru at French Open

PARIS — Stan Wawrinka avoided becoming the first defending champion to lose in the first round at the French Open Monday when he battled past combative Lukas Rosol in five tough sets. Third seed Wawrinka fired 56 winners but committed 46 unforced errors and needed to save eight break points to book a second round clash against Japan's Taro Daniel. Wawrinka, 31, had defeated 59th-ranked Rosol in the semifinals of the Geneva clay-court tournament just last Friday. But Rosol went into the match on a chilly Court Philippe Chatrier with the pedigree of having famously stunned Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2012. That free-swinging masterclass almost paid dividends again Monday but once he had let slip two break points at 2-2 in the fourth set, his hopes slowly slipped away. "He's typically very aggressive and puts a lot of pressure. That's what he did today," said Wawrinka of a match played out in temperatures of just 12 degrees. "He left me very little space to move, and he fought very hard. I was very happy to pick up the fifth set in spite of the cold." Japan's fifth seed Kei Nishikori reached the second round with a 6-1, 7-5, 6-3 win over Simone Bolelli of Italy. Nishikori goes on to face Russia's Andrey Kuznetsov after finishing off a first-round tie which had been suspended overnight with him leading 2-1 in the third set. It was a 50th career Grand Slam match win for Nishikori who made the quarterfinals in Paris in 2015. "It wasn't easy. I started really well. I was up 6-1, 3-0, I think. Pretty aggressive and moving the ball pretty good. He started playing little better in the second, but I thought it was a great match for me," said Nishikori. Spanish fourth seed Garbine Muguruza struggled on Court Suzanne Lenglen, coming back from a set down to defeat Slovakia's Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. Muguruza, who has made the quarterfinals for the last two years, will take on French wildcard Myrtille Georges, the world No. 203, for a place in the last 32. But the 22-year-old Wimbledon runner-up was far from impressive. After dropping the first set, Muguruza had to save nine break points just in the opening game of the second. She then allowed her 37th-ranked opponent, who has won just one match all year, to claw her way back from 0-4 down to 3-4 in the decider before the Spaniard settled herself to see out the win. Muguruza fired 44 winners but hit 53 unforced errors and had to save 17 of 21 break points. Second seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland brushed aside Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski 6-0, 6-2. Radwanska, who was a quarterfinalist in 2013 but lost in the first round to Germany's Annika Beck last year, goes on to face Caroline Garcia of France. Garcia won the Strasbourg claycourt title Saturday. Monday's result left Jovanovski, the world No. 120, without a win in 2016. Romanian sixth seed Simona Halep, the 2014 runner-up, also progressed, taking just 43 minutes to defeat Japan's Nao Hibino 6-2, 6-0. Seeds falling by the wayside included 2012 runner-up Sara Errani, the Italian 16th seed, who lost to 2010 Wimbledon semifinalist Tsvetana Pironkova 6-3, 6-2. Joining her by the wayside was seventh seed Roberta Vinci, the Italian who stunned Serena Williams at the US Open semifinals last year. The 33-year-old suffered a third successive first-round exit in Paris going down 6-1, 6-3 to Kateryna Bondarenko who hadn't won a match at the French Open since 2010. Also heading out was Czech 17th seed Karolina Pliskova who lost 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to 108th-ranked Shelby Rogers of the United States. Play started two-and-a-half hours late Monday because of more rain with 12 of the 66 scheduled matches pushed back to Tuesday. However, there was time for a notable first. Qualifier Cagla Buyukakcay beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus 5-7, 7-6 (7/2), 6-2 to become the first Turkish woman in the Open era to reach the second round of a Grand Slam. Canadian eighth seed Milos Raonic, a 2014 quarterfinalist, defeated Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5). Tipsarevic was playing his first Roland Garros since 2013 after being treated for a benign tumor on his left foot. — Agencies Caption Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka reacts after defeating Czech Republic's Lukas Rosol at the Roland Garros 2016 French Tennis Open in Paris Monday. — AFP