Andy Roddick had been on the top of men’s rankings for so long that it seems a shame to see how far he’s fallen.  Injuries have meant that Roddick has missed a few weeks or more each year.  A noted hard-worker, Roddick’s training may have lead to additional injuries.  Roddick did not play any of the major clay events leading to the French.  His last event was in Miami where he upset Roger Federer, but then had no energy left to beat Juan Monaco in the following round.

Roddick played in World Team Cup, a mini-Davis Cup like event that occurs on clay the week before the French Open.  Roddick lost all three matches he played.  The loss to Berdych was understandable.  However, he also lost to Go Soeda and Carlos Berlocq.

In a way, Roddick couldn’t have asked for a better opponent in the first round than Nicolas Mahut.  Although Mahut may have been trained in France, the French have often done better developing players that could play on faster courts.  Mahut has a pretty big serve and can volley pretty well.  Before getting better at singles, he played quite a bit of doubles. And since Mahut’s most famous match, he’s had decent results that have allowed him to play in the main draw of a Slam without playing qualifiers, something he had to do at Wimbledon in 2010.

Roddick would complain, in a post-match interview, that his footwork wasn’t really there, and that if he can’t get set, he can’t really pressure opponents.

Roddick did eke out a set, but in the end, Mahut took the match comfortably, 63, 63, 46, 62.

Countryman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, dropped at a 61 set to qualified, Andrei Kuznetsov, before bouncing back to take the next three sets.

Stan Wawrinka needed 5 sets to beat Flavio Cipolla despite being up 2 sets to love.  Fortunately, his opponent in the next round, Pablo Andujar, also needed 5 sets to beat Victor Hanescu.

Jurgen Melzer, who was once ranked as high as 9, has seen his rank dropped.  He lost in the first round to German Michael Berrer despite being up two sets to love.

Overall, Juan Martin del Potro had a solid win over clay courter, Albert Montanes, winning 62, 67, 62, 61.