Paris: Another day on the clay at the French Open, another reigning Australian Open champion bites the red dust.
Li Na lost her first Grand Slam match since winning the title in Melbourne, falling to Kristina Mladenovic of France 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 on Tuesday. The loss came a day after men's Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka was eliminated in the first round.
Li, who won the French Open title in 2011, ended up with 37 unforced errors on a cool and overcast day at Roland Garros. Mladenovic had only 25 errors.
On Monday, Wawrinka lost to 41st-ranked Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 6-0.
This is the first time that both Australian Open champions have lost in the first round at Roland Garros. The last Australian Open women's champion to lose in the first round in Paris was Lindsay Davenport in 2000.
Earlier, fourth-seeded Simona Halep made it through to the second round while Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm didn't.
Halep won 11 straight games at the start and beat Alisa Kleybanova of Russia 6-0, 6-2.
The 22-year-old Romanian has never been past the second round at Roland Garros, but she entered the clay-court major as one of the favorites following a run to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open.
Playing on Court Philippe Chatrier, the main stadium at Roland Garros, Halep raced through the first set and then won the first five games of the second. But she was broken while serving for the match the first time.
Halep finished with only six unforced errors, while Kleybanova had 29.
Date-Krumm, the oldest woman in the field at 43, had an up-and-down match against 24th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, eventually losing 6-3, 0-6, 6-2.
Date-Krumm is the third oldest player in French Open singles history; Martina Navratilova was 47 in 2004. She made her main-draw debut at Roland Garros in 1989 -- before more than half of this year's women's field was even born.
No. 27 Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2009 French Open champion, also advanced, along with No. 26 Sorana Cirstea of Romania.
In the men's tournament, 11th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov lost to Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (4).
Dimitrov reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, but his best result at Roland Garros was getting to the third round in 2013.
No. 32 Andreas Seppi of Italy advanced.
Later Tuesday, seventh-seeded Andy Murray, the 2013 Wimbledon champion, was scheduled to play Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan.
