Seventeenth seeded Nick Kyrgios of Australia, hailed as one of the Next Gen star, is one of the five players to advance into the second round on a day when heavy and prolonged rain interruptions throughout the afternoon curtailed the opening day at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris.

The 21 year old Australian was made to fight hard by the Italian Marco Checcinato and had to save two set points in the second set tie-break before completing a 7-6(6), 7-6(6), 6-4 win. The only break of serve in the whole match came in the fifth game of the third set. Kyrgios next faces Igor Sijsling of Netherlands who defeated the Romanian Adrian Ungur 6-1, 6-2, 7-6(5).

The 19th seeded Frenchman Benoit Paire was fired up in a dramatic 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 win over the qualifier from Spain Radu Albot. Next up he will play the Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili who beat the American Donald Young 7-6(1),6-2,6-3. In the only other completed match of the day the Russian Andrey Kuznetsov dismissed the veteran German Benjamin Becker 6-2, 6-2, 6-4.

The fifth seeded Kei Nishikori led by two sets and was up 2-1 in the third against the Italian Simone Bolleli, while the American Jack Sock is locked at two sets apiece with the Dutch doubles specialist Robin Haase. Sock claimed the first two sets 6-3,7-5, but Haase rallied to claim the next two 6-3,7-6(3) to force a decisive fifth set which will be played tomorrow. Dustin Brown of Germany leads the veteran Dudi Sela 2 sets to 1.

The following is the list of matches to be played tomorrow with my pick mentioned first (including the two incomplete matches) :-

Stanislas Wawrinka (3) v. Lukas Rosol
Kei Nishikori (5) v. Simone Bolleli
Andy Murray (2) v. Radek Stepanek
Giles Simon (16) v. Rogerio Dutra Silva
Richard Gasquet (9) v. Thomaz Bellucci
Jeremy Chardy (30) v. Leonardo Mayer
Lucas Pouille (29) v. Julien Benneteau
Milos Raonic (8) v. Janko Tipsarevic
Jack Sock (23) v. Robin Haase
Marin Cilic (10) v. Marco Trungelliti
Victor Troicki (22) v. Grigor Dmitrov
John Isner (15) v. John Milkman
Martin Klizan v. Taro Daniel
Daniel Munoz De La Nava v. Andrej Martin
Adam Pavlasek v. Roberto Carballes Baena
Adrian Mannarino v. Mikhail Kukushkin
Kyle Edmund v. Nikoloz Basilashvili
Jordan Thompson v.Laslo Djere
Horacio Zeballos v. Albert Ramos Vinolas
Dusan Lajovic v. Denis Kudla
Pablo Cuevas (25) v. Tobias Kamke
Dustin Brown v. Dudi Sela
Fernando Verdasco v. Steve Johnson (33)
Sam Querrey v. Bjorn Fratengelo
Mikhail Youzhny v. Ivan Dodig
Ivo Karlovic (27) v. Albert Montanes
Quentin Halys v. Hyeon Chung
Diego Schwartzman v. Guido Pella

– Rasesh Mehta [Rasesh Mehta is an analyst with the Tennis Galaxy. You can reach him at the email: sportzcosmos@gmail.com]