Robin Soderling played a French wildcard and, as expected, didn’t have too many issues.  He beat Laurent Recouderc 6-0, 6-2, 6-3.  Although his results in the clay season have not been exceptional (he reached the finals of Barcelona, but has lost early in other tournaments), Soderling feels he has trained well.

Marin Cilic had a tougher time against Ricardo Mello of Brazil.  Although Mello is not a name you hear much (since many players at his rank play Challengers), he has been playing for some time as he is nearly 30.  Few of the “unknown” players are young.  Many are 25 or older who have increased their court savvy as they’ve gotten older (otherwise, they would have left the circuit a long time ago).  Cilic won 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.  Cilic plays a flatter style and generally prefers faster surfaces.  Clay is likely his weakest surface, but the question is how well Cilic adjusts his style for the clay.  Like Soderling, Cilic didn’t have a great clay season, and doesn’t even have a nice result to point to.

Mikhail Youzhny has a comfortable first round win over Michal Przysiezny of Poland 6-1, 6-0, 6-4.  Thiemo de Bakker had a tough four set win over Frenchman Olivier Patience 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.

Perhaps the only “upset” today so far is Alejandro Falla of Colombia beating Janko Tipsarevic easily 6-1, 6-2, 6-3.  Tipsarevic gets a ton of mileage from his five set push of Roger Federer back in 2008 Australian Open.  The fact of the matter is Federer plays so up and down that he will have matches where ordinary players look good against him.  It’s more instructive to look at Tipsarevic’s ranking which is around 40.  At that rank, you are more prone to being upset by the right player in the top 100.  Although Falla was ranked much lower than Tipsy, he is still around 80.

Tennis commentators show a bit of savvy when they say Tipsarevic is a threat to Federer, but Fed is likely to point out that as good as Tipsarevic might be, he’s only likely to beat him once in a blue moon, that is, quite rarely.  Similarly, they point to the danger of Montanes, but Fed lost to Montanes on very wet, slow clay and wasn’t playing like he did in Madrid.  The likelihood is Fed beat Montanes from now on.  The only legitimate threat that Fed has in the “early” going is Robin Soderling, and even as formidable as the Swede is, Federer has a gaudy record against him.

If commentators had paid attention, Soderling didn’t just meet Federer at the French, he also met him at Wimbledon and at the US Open where he lost to Federer.  Soderling finally beat Federer early in 2010, but it was an exhibition prior to the Australian Open.  The one reason Soderling is legitimate is because he’s ranked in the top 10 and has big shots.  However, so far, an in-form Roger Federer has not lost to Robin Soderling.  Doesn’t mean it can’t or won’t happen, just that the record doesn’t work in Soderling’s favor.

Gulbis is now playing against Benneteau, down an early early break.  Tsonga will play later.  Montanes also just won his match in straight sets.