French Open will have a new women’s titlist

PARIS – A sprinkle of rain, like soft tears, fell in the final game on one more day of sadness and frustration for Anastasia Myskina, the first defending French Open champion, male or female, ever to lose in the first round.

The thrill of her upset victory a year ago seemed a mocking memory for the wispy Russian. Fans who cheered her unsympathetically whistled when she smacked her racket on the court in anger at herself. Shots she couldn’t miss last year have been flying wildly most of the time since. She can’t find her footing, her rhythm. Her mind wanders.

Much of it is understandable. Her thoughts have been with her seriously ill mother, and there are times when the 23-year-old Myskina feels she should not be playing at all. Her dark eyes were sad and downcast Monday during her 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 loss to 18-year-old Maria Sanchez Lorenzo of Spain.

Monday featured a parade of former champions and hot newcomers, a tease of what might be expected the next two weeks. The top-seeded players, Roger Federer and Lindsay Davenport, advanced, as did the 18-year-olds Rafael Nadal of Spain and Richard Gasquet of France.

“I was a little more nervous than usual. I felt maybe a little insecure,” said the thickly muscled, No. 4 seeded Nadal, winner of five clay-court titles this year. “My idea was to look at this as one more match, with nothing really special about it.”

Defending men’s champ Gaston Gaudio also won, along with all the other seeded men in action except No. 17 Dominik Hrbaty.

Venus Williams, coming off a victory in a clay tuneup in Turkey and seeking her first French title, won easily, as did Kim Clijsters, a two-time French Open runner-up.

“For sure I want to win this one,” said Williams. “I don’t know if I’m obsessed. Obviously, I’m working hard.”