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Day 1, Parfait!

Dhritiman Hui Day One on crushed brick saw all matches being played to an ideal script. Carlos Moya, defending champion, but in lukewarm form, took two sets to get his game together before he managed to put it across Markus Hipl, a stubborn gentleman who refused to be drawn to the front of the court.

Ultimately a flurry of baseline grounders, and then a few loose service games from Hipl, helped a visibly nervous Moya to get through to a 3-6,1-6,6-4,6-2,6-4 win over his No. 92 ranked opponent, in 2 hours and 55 minutes.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov lived up splendidly to his number one seed billing with an impressive hard-earned victory over Michael Chang. As usual, every point against Chang had to be earned, but the 1996 titlist managed to eject the 1989 prodigy 6-2,5-7,6-0,7-6.

Kafelnikov glowed in the post-match conference, and looked pleased with the way things had kicked off for him, and looks in ominous form to pick up the trophy he had stormed to three years back.

Jim Courier, the Roland Garros champion in 1991and '92, reached into his past by playing patient, pound-it-from-the-baseline tennis for a 6-1, 6-3, 7-5 win over Alex Calatrava.
"Getting through in straight sets is always a pleasure in this tournament in particular," Courier said. "It was a heavy day out there. It was really difficult to hit a winner. So to get off the court relatively unscathed is definitely a bonus."

Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski, better known as British Tennis, were outstanding in first round play. Henman, the No. 7 seed who had never won a match at Roland Garros, defeated Karim Alami 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a three-hour, nine minute marathon. The No. 13 seeded Rusedski was 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 better than David Prinosil.

Marcelo Rios, seeded ninth, scoffed at his official billing with a brand of ruthless tennis that blew his opponent, qualifier Axel Pretzsch off the court with six convincing breaks of serve. A visibly pleased Rios sounded a warning that he was hitting the ball better than he ever has.

Jan-Michael Gambill became Dutchman Richard Krajiceck's punching bag for the night as the No. 5 seed handed the 21-year-old a 7-6, 6-3, 6-2 defeat.

Vince Spadea was solid downing Mark Woodforde 7-6, 6-3, 7-5. Chris Woodruff played a similar brand of tennis stopping qualifier Diego Moyano 6-2, 6-3, 6-7, 7-5.

Andre Agass, the man who cornered the glamour and interest in the men's draw, put to rest all curiosity surrounding his right shoulder that kept him out of last week's Dusseldorf championships by cruising to a 3-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-3 win over Franco Squillari . Agassi figured that getting through the first round was always the big hurdle, and he knew his game was going to just get better with every match now.

In the women's draw, the six feet three Venus Williams put her best foot forward with a brilliant public relations exercise in which she smiled through the whole match, waved to the crowd whilst blowing away French veteran Alexandra Fusai 6-1, 6-1 in 49 minutes.

She played a nearly flawless match in crushing five aces and seven service winners, blasting nine winners off her weaker forehand side and grabbing 61 per cent of her return of serve points, and then spoke of how Paris was her favourite city in the whole wide world, and left, the darling of the Parisian Press Corps and the crowd.

Amelie Mauresmo swept aside Tara Snyder in an hour and fourteen minutes before an adoring Central Court crowd. The French belle has now set up a second round clash with Martina Hingis.

All of France will await this one as the Swiss miss will realise that she has set herself up against a woman who has displayed ominous brilliance on her net approaches, who still carries a grudge against Hingis for the slightly off-the-cuff remarks that she passed on her sexual preferences prior to their Australian Open final, which the world number one went on to win.

Mauresmo commented that she expected the world number one to raise her game a few notches when she meets her, but that she'll have all of Court Suzanne Lenglen backing her.

Roland Garros, the deceased French aviator would have been pleased with the legacy of glamour, excitement and competition that he has left behind for the world to behold.