Maria Sharapova sees off Su-Wei Hsieh in 54 minutes at French Open

Five things we learned from day 1 and 2 at Roland Garros.

Maria Sharapova celebrates defeating Hsieh Su-Wei Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes

• It’ll take more than big hitting to get past Rafael Nadal. The defending champion lost the first set to Daniel Brands from Germany. Nadal wasn’t doing too well in the second set tie-break either. But he turned it around with a couple of buccaneering sweeps of his Babolat racquet and it was auf wiedersehen Danny, mein Sohn. 

• It was au revoir Tomas Berdych. The Czech fifth seed was one of the dark horses for the tournament. Why? Because he is big and tall and can whack the ball. However he came up against the gangly Frenchman Gael Monfils and over four hours and five sets, Berdych was sent on his way. No easy matches at this level.

• Well, actually, I take that back. The women’s defending champion Maria Sharapova took 54 minutes to dissect Su-Wei Hsieh from Chinese Taipei 6-2 6-1. On Sunday, the top seed Serena Williams dispatched Anna Tatishvili from Georgia 6-0 6-1 in 51 minutes. 
   
• Former world number one Roger Federer keeps on rolling. The ever-courteous Swiss was full of the right words after taking 80 minutes to get past the Spanish qualifier Pablo Carreno-Busta. Federer said it was important to be careful against someone who could play well on clay. Ah bless.
   
• A tennis tournament is so much jollier in the sunshine. It positively glowed around the (soon to be enlarged) precincts of Roland Garros during the second day after a chilly start on Sunday.