Australian Open champ Li Na 1st-round loser at French

PARIS – Much to her dismay, Li Na is familiar with this feeling.

She earns a Grand Slam championship, is heralded at home, then shows up at subsequent major tournaments and seemingly forgets how to win.

Happened in 2011, after her French Open triumph made her China’s first player with a Grand Slam singles title. Happened again Tuesday, when Li was seeded second at Roland Garros but lost to someone ranked 103rd in the first round, not quite four months removed from winning the Australian Open.

“I didn’t follow the game plan,” Li said. “Didn’t have any idea how to play.”

Her 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 exit against Kristina Mladenovic of France in front of a partisan crowd on a cloudy, windy Day 3 came about 16 hours after the men’s Australian Open champion, third-seeded Stan Wawrinka, was beaten in Paris – making this French Open already unlike any Grand Slam tournament in history.

It’s the first time that the men’s and women’s singles champions from the previous major lost in the first round.

It’s been rough going for many players.

No. 13 Caroline Wozniacki, the 2009 U.S. Open runner-up, was beaten, less than a week after her planned wedding to golf star Rory McIlroy was called off; No. 11 Grigor Dimitrov, considered an up-and-coming threat by many, lost to Ivo Karlovic; two seeded men, No. 16 Tommy Haas and No. 21 Nicolas Almagro, quit during the first set because of injuries; Lleyton Hewitt also lost.

Sister, sister

Serena and Venus Williams will get back on court in the second round of the French Open today, with a sister vs. sister meeting in the next round a possibility.

Serena, the defending champ and top seed, will face Garbine Muguruza of Spain, while Venus, seeded 29th, will take on Anna Schmiedlova of Slovakia.

Venus has seven Grand Slam titles, while Serena boasts 17.

The last time the sisters met at a major tournament was in the 2009 Wimbledon final. Serena won.

Old-timer exits

Kimiko Date-Krumm, the oldest woman in the French Open field, is already out.

The 43-year-old Japanese veteran lost to 24th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-3, 0-6, 6-2 in the first round.

Date-Krumm is the third oldest player in French Open singles history; Martina Navratilova was 47 in 2004.

Murray wins

Andy Murray won his first match at the French Open in two years, beating Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

The Wimbledon champion missed last year’s tournament with a back injury, but he reached the semifinals in 2011 and the quarterfinals a year later.

Murray is seeded seventh, his lowest at a Grand Slam tournament since 2008.