Former world number 1’s have been doing well. Juan Carlos Ferrero won his first round match over Ivan Ljubicic. Lleyton Hewitt beat Ivo Karlovic in the first round. Today, he had a nice victory of Kazakh, Andrey Golubev (age: 21, rank: 88), 6-4, 6-3, 6-1.

Hewitt’s reward for this? A date with current world number 1, Rafael Nadal. The series is surprisingly tied at 4-all, though all of Hewitt’s victories have been on hard courts or grass, and he hasn’t beaten Nadal since 2006 Queen’s Club.

Hewitt has played Rafa twice at Roland Garros, once in 2006 and once in 2007. He’s managed to take one set off of Rafa in these two meetings.

Although Hewitt’s rank has slipped to 48, much like Juan Carlos Ferrero, he still has that champion’s fight in him. He’ll probably play Rafa reasonably tight but lose in straight sets, or take a set, if he can manage it. He’s likely to be Rafa’s toughest opponent so far.

Radek Stepanek had a fairly tough fight over Frenchman, Mathieu Montcourt (age: 24, rank: 123) winning in four sets, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Rafa, not surprisingly, beat Gabashvili (age 24, rank 72) in straight sets: 6-1, 6-4, 6-2. This is his 30th consecutive win at Roland Garros, a record.

After ekeing out a 5 set win, Stan Wawrinka had a relaxed win over Chilean and former gold medalist, Nicolas Massu (age: 29, rank: 120), 6-1, 6-1, 6-2.

Fernando Gonzalez had a deja vu moment, beating his second round opponent, Rui Machado of Portugal (age: 25, rank: 130) by the same score as his first round opponent: 6-3. 6-2. 6-3.

Janko Tipsarevic, who famously took Roger Federer to 5 sets at the Australian Open in 2007, beat 28th seed, Feliciano Lopez: 6-7 (9), 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-3. Up next for the Serb is Scot, Andy Murray.

David Ferrer had a surprisingly tough time against the German veteran, Nicolas Kiefer (age: 31, rank: 37), winning in 5 sets: 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. Goes to show you that a high ranked player (ranked above 50) can give most seeded players some trouble.

Two of the older French players on two had different results. Both were finishing late 1st round matches from Tuesday.

36 year old, Fabrice Santoro, lost to 30 year old, Christophe Rochus of Belgium: 6-3, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4. Santoro told French crowds this would be his last French Open, after 20 appearances.

31 year old Arnaud Clement (rank: 57) beat 26 year old (and 21st seed), Dmitry Tursunov: 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Day 5 has 46th ranked Jose Acasuso playing world number 2, Roger Federer. Federer has won all 3 previous meetings, all on hard courts.

A surprising number of Frenchman are scheduled to play Thursday: Monfils, Clement, Mathieu, Chardy, Rufin, and Giquel. Americans that made it to the second round? 2.

Andy Roddick looks to equal his best result at Roland Garros. He plays Czech, Ivo Minar (age: 25, rank: 85). They’ve met 3 times before. Roddick holds a 3-0 head-to-head, and has even played Minar on clay. However, the two have played very close matches in the past, even on faster surfaces. Expect a tight match.

Quick note: Mathieu Moncourt is being fined $12,000 and banned five weeks of play for betting about US $200 on tennis matches (not his). Andy Murray thought this fine was inappropriate for the amount in question. Coincidentally, Murray’s opponent, Potito Starace was banned for 6 weeks and fined $30,000 in December 2007 for roughly similar amounts of betting.

Another note: Marat Safin doesn’t pull it out. After coming from two sets to love down and forcing a fifth set, he loses to Josselin Ouanna of France (age: 23, rank: 134). Score: 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 3-6, 10-8.