30 May: As it happens12.47 pm: ERV breaks to lead 4-3, service to come against JMdP! I know Juan Martin is a tad tight physically but this is a surprise!
12.44 pm: A late break and Aleks Wozniak is through, 2 and 4 against No.31 seed (and Wimbledon and US Open semi-finalist) Zheng (whose reconstructed ankles don’t like sliding on clay, it has to be said). The Canadian’ll face Vika in the third round.
12.36 pm: Nole does the break-hold-break three-step and takes the second set. Poor Kavcic gave it his all but it simply wasn't enough, 4-2 becomes 4-6 all too easily when you play the Djoker.
12.33 pm: Ladies and gentlemen, pray silence for the arrival of the Fedmeister. And true to form, Rocket Roger is already a game up on Adrian Ungur, who's never played Fed before but who is 3-3 in Davis Cup duty for Romania, so fair play to him. And he beat David Nalbandian two days ago. If Fed wins today though, he takes sole possession of the record for most wins in Grand Slam tournaments (which he shares with Jimmy Connors, who gets his second mention of the day in this timeline...)
12.24 pm: Kavcic, who is in his third consecutive RG second round and who lost to JMdP here last year, is hanging tough. Serving at 4-3, he’s just sent Nole a-slippin’ and a-slidin’, with the world No.1 ending up accidentally bouncing his racquet high in the air. It turns out to be a case of merely delaying the inevitable however: Nole pushes and pushes and he’s started to get a read on the drop shots. The breakback comes and Djoker follows it up with a hold. Suddenly Blaz is serving to stay in the set.
No.21 seed Sara Errani defeats Mel Oudin 2 and 3 and the blue-eyed Italian (her eyes are a paler blue than even Vera Dushevina’s) will face the winner of Shahar Peer and Ana Ivanovic next up.
12.15 pm: Edouard Roger-Vasselin gets a mini-break, serves large and smashes to take the breaker 7-5. John Martin of the Pot is a set down! Sound the alarms!
12.07 pm: Vika is the first winner of the day, 6-1 6-1 in less than an hour over Dinah Pfizenmaier. Her third-round opponent remains to be seen however – Aleks Woz is locked at 2-2 with Zheng after racing through the first set.
And the second winner of the day is Dominika Cilbulkova, a 6-0, 6-2 winner over Shania Twain, sorry Vania King, Lil’ Dommie C, coached by Dinara’s former trainer Zelkjo Krajan and a one-time sweetheart of Gael Monfils, will face the winner of No.20 seed (and one-time sweetheart of Tomas Berdych) Lucie Safarova and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (one-time…er… winner of Rome. In 2010).
12.01 pm: Kavcic is laying down drops like Billie Jena King in her prime. He carved out another break point which the Djoker managed to save with a laaaaaaaaarge service but the Slovene has the wind in his sails under the midday sun here in Paris. On Court No.2, we'll also have a tie-break between JMdP and ERV.
11.54 am: Ooh! Break point, Nole nets it and Kavcic breaks to lead 2-1 in the second! Nole berates himself copiously, as well he might. That certainly wasn't in the script. Vika meanwhile is sticking to hers. 6-1, 3-0. As is Aleks Woz, who leads Zheng 6-2, 2-0. These two are slated to meet in round three and are just three and fours games away from booking their berths.
11.45 am: Here’s an interesting battle on Court No.9. Akgul Amanmuradova against Carla Suarez Navarro. Unfortunately I’m not paid by the letter so I’m not going to be typing those names out again until one of them wins. It’s 4-4 between the Uzbek and the Tenerifan at the moment (mind you, the latter made the quarter-finals here in 2008).
11.35 am: Wow, plenty of first sets done and dusted already! No hanging around from Djokovic 6-0 over Kavcic, Azarenka 5-1 over Pfizenmaier, Stosur 6-1 over Falconi, Aleks Wozniak (one of only two Canadians left, alongside Milos) 5-2 over Zheng (and the art of motorcycle maintenance) and Dominika Cibulkova 6-0 over Vania King.
11.33 am: Wow, after Serena got unceremoniously dumped out last night, things aren't improving for USA. Melanie Oudin, ze most Frenchie of ze Americans, is 5-1 down to Sara Errani, who is the most blonde of Italians (at least she was the last time I looked - difficult to tell here at the moment).
11.30 am: Double-barreled derby. Juan Martin del Potro was a break up but Edouard Roger-Vasselin (the RV is his surname, it's not a double first name) has broken back! ERV is 28 and is the son of Christophe Roger-Vasselin who beat Jimmy Connors in the quarters here in 1983.
11.20 am: Go the Sto'! The 2010 runner-up and 2011 US Open is 4-0 up on Irina Falcona, whom she beat an Indian Wells earlier this year in the first round. Falconi is pint-sized American, despite her Italian-sounding name, and defeated Edina Gallovits in the opener.
11.15 am: Battle of tall blondes on Chatrier. World No.1 Vika Azarenka and No.198 Dinah Pzifenmaier (pronounced Pfitsenmyuh) have never met before (on court, I mean. I'm sure they've seen each other at tournaments. Or maybe not - Dinah's only really played lower-ranked ITF tournaments to date and has only just made it into the top 200. Amazing that she beat Caroline Garcia in the first round but it was a kind draw to the German).
11.10 am: It's a glorious morning here. How's the weather where you are? Djokovic is about to take on Blaz Kavcic for the second time in their careers, Nole having won their only previous encounter at his home tournament of Belgrade last year. Blaz is only the second Slovenian man to win a Grand Slam match, after Grega Zemlja who also made the second round here two years ago.
10.50 am: Greetings one and all, welcome to day 4 at the French. We're half-way through the tournament in terms of matches, but from hereon in its quality not quantity. The second round begins today, with Vika, Rog, Gilles v Brian Baker, Aga v Venus, Nole, Marion, Sam and Jo-Wil.
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