Retiring Kuerten plays final singles match

PARIS — The French Open’s first day featured all the postmatch spectacle of a Grand Slam tournament’s final day.

There were the grown men in yellow T-shirts and beige shorts scurrying onto center court with a wooden table to hold a trophy, the speech to the crowd by one of the players, and the dozens of photographers jockeying for position behind a baseline.

Except instead of a celebration of a new champion, as will happen in two weeks, all of Sunday’s fuss was about saluting a departing one. Yes, they feted the match’s loser: Gustavo Kuerten, the owner of three French Open titles and a former No. 1. He is now ranked outside the top 1,000 and is retiring at age 31 because of chronic hip injuries.

He was beaten 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 by 18th-seeded Paul-Henri Mathieu of France, hardly a surprising result on a day when surprises were few and far between.

There was one relatively big one, though: No. 16 Carlos Moya, the 1998 French Open champion but someone with a .500 record on clay this season, lost 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-7 (1), 4-6, 6-3 to qualifier Eduardo Schwank of Argentina.

Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic dropped his opening set before recovering to advance in four. No. 7-seeded James Blake beat Rainer Schuettler 6-4, 6-1, 7-6 (3) to make U.S. men 1-0 so far – a year after they went 0-9 at the clay-court major.

Serena Williams, the only past French Open winner in the women’s field, won in straight sets, as did 2007 runner-up Ana Ivanovic.