Robert Farah clinched his 200th tour-level doubles victory on Tuesday, defeating Max Mirnyi and Philipp Oswald 7-6(3), 7-6(4) alongside partner Juan Sebastian Cabal at Roland Garros. The fifth seeds advanced to the second round after one hour and 52 minutes, winning 76 per cent of second-serve points.

Farah, who turned professional in 2010, recently won his 11th tour-level title with Cabal at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, beating Pablo Carreno Busta and Joao Sousa in the championship match.

The Colombian Power await Argentina’s Guido Pella and Diego Schwartzman or Antoine Hoang and Ugo Humbert in the second round.

Great Britain’s Ken Skupski and Neal Skupski took just 67 minutes to produce a big upset on Court 15, defeating Americans Mike Bryan and Sam Querrey 7-5, 6-4.

The Open Sud de France champions won 88 per cent of first-serve points (31/35) and converted the only two break points of the match en route to victory. The British brothers, competing for the first time together on the Parisian clay, now hold an 8-3 record at tour-level this season.

Mike Bryan, a two-time champion at the event (2003, 2013), was competing without his injured brother, Bob Bryan, for the first time at a Grand Slam. Bryan/Bryan had contested the past 76 majors together, dating back to 1999 Roland Garros.

Skupski/Skupski will meet German duo Maximilian Marterer and Philipp Petzschner or Italians Daniele Bracciali and Andreas Seppi for a place in the third round.

Reigning Nitto ATP Finals champions Henri Kontinen and John Peers comfortably secured their position in the next round, beating Ilya Ivashka and Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-2.

Kontinen and Peers wasted little time, cruising past the unseeded duo in 52 minutes, with three breaks of serve. The third seeds will meet Mirza Basic and Damir Dzumhur in the second round. Basic and Dzumhur defeated Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Jiri Vesely 6-4, 6-3.

Mutua Madrid Open champions Nikola Mektic and Alexander Peya continued their fine form on red dirt, defeating Gazprom Hungarian Open winners Dominic Inglot and Franko Skugor 6-4, 6-3. Also in that section of the draw, Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus overcame Frenchmen Corentin Denolly and Alexandre Muller 6-3, 6-3.

The 10th seeds will face another French duo in the second round, after Jonathan Eysseric and Hugo Nys defeated David Marrero and Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 7-5.

Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin took just over an hour to defeat #NextGenATP stars Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 6-1, while fellow seeds Julio Peralta and Horacio Zeballos also dropped just four games, beating Hugo Gaston and Clement Tabur 6-2, 6-2.

Unseeded Dutchmen Robin Haase and Matwe Middelkoop charged into the second round after 43 minutes, comfortably beating Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka and Yuichi Sugita 6-1, 6-2.

Wesley Koolhof and Artem Sitak came from a set down to beat fellow unseeded pairing Andre Begemann and Antonio Sancic 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-4.

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For a half hour on Tuesday at Roland Garros, 36-year-old Nicolas Mahut turned back time. The French wild card was dominating fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro, drop shotting the 6’6” Argentine and serving and volleying as if he was on the The Queen’s Club grass.

Twenty-five minutes into their first-round match, Mahut led 6-1 and had the French crowd on Court Suzanne-Lenglen eager for more. But the party soon ended.

Del Potro, perhaps nervous about testing his injured groin, eventually settled his game and started to solve Mahut’s serve-and-volley style. The Argentine sprinted through the second set in 31 minutes, and repeated the act two more times to advance 1-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.

“I know he starts very slow, and it’s not as though if I play from the baseline that I’m going to win. So I had to play at the front part of the court as much as possible. I played well. I broke, and I served well,” Mahut said of the beginning of the first-round contest. “But the more the match was going on, the more I understood that he was really regaining all of his potential.”

Del Potro broke twice in the third and once more in the fourth, smacking a forehand behind Mahut for a 4-2 advantage. “I didn’t play my best tennis basically at the beginning of the match, but then I felt a little better,” Del Potro said. “I had a lot of doubts in the beginning, and luckily I got over that. I felt much more comfortable on the clay surface and in the game.”

His status for Roland Garros was unclear after he retired from his third-round match against David Goffin because of a groin injury at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome on 17 May.

Read More: Six Who Could Challenge Rafa

He left Rome, saying he’d undergo health exams. But the 2009 semi-finalist didn’t seem bothered by it against Mahut, who tested it often with his crafty touch.

“Thanks to the very good professionals that’s around me, I was able to play,” Del Potro said. “The doctor gave me some ten days, we respected this pause of ten days, and now I’m back.”

He will next meet Frenchman Julien Benneteau or countryman Leonardo Mayer. Their match was suspended Tuesday night with Mayer leading 6-2, 4-3.

Swede Elias Ymer earned his first Grand Slam victory on his sixth try, beating Israeli Dudi Sela 7-6(3), 6-3, 6-1. Ymer, who is coached by two-time Roland Garros finalist Robin Soderling, won exactly half of his return points (54/108), and will next face 18th seed Fabio Fognini. Italy’s No. 1 beat Marrakech champion Pablo Andujar of Spain 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 in less than two hours.

Watch: Ymer Visits His Ethiopian Roots

In Rome, Fognini was a set away from becoming the fourth man to beat Nadal at least three times on clay (Novak Djokovic, 7; Dominic Thiem, 3; Gaston Gaudio, 3).

Did You Know?
Del Potro has never lost to a player at his home Grand Slam. He is 5-0 against Frenchmen at Roland Garros and 3-0 against Americans at the US Open. He has never played against an Australian at the Australian Open or a Brit at Wimbledon.

Carlos Moya, coach of world No. 1 Rafael Nadal, will be breaking down Rafa’s performances for ATPWorldTour.com. Nadal hopes to lift the trophy for the 11th time.

On Tuesday, the defending champion defeated Simone Bolelli 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(9) to advance to the second round, where he’ll face Guido Pella for a place in the Round of 32. Moya lists five key takeaways from Nadal’s opening-round match.

A Victory — With Its Ups And Downs
Today’s match wasn’t the prettiest, but he still managed to win. Getting through the early rounds at a Grand Slam is an ordeal. Yes, he came through in three sets, but the match was a lot tougher than the score suggests [Nadal trailed 6/3 in the third set tie-break and saved four set points]. Rafa had several ups and down, but in the end he came through and that’s what matters. This win will give him confidence going to the later rounds.

Just Roll With The Punches
Rafa has maintained a positive outlook, despite the weather conditions and the rain delay. He understands not everything will go his way and he has taken this in stride. Some elements of his game have been on point while others will come as he gets more matches in. That’s why I’m not too concerned that he wasn’t at his best today.

Let’s Think Positive Thoughts
At one point during the match [against Bolelli], Rafa seemed to be taking his game to the next level. He earned that break point at 3-3 in the second set and I thought Rafa would sprint to the finish. That wasn’t the case, obviously, and maybe some doubts set in when things didn’t go that way. Still, we’re staying positive and hoping to make some corrections ahead of the next match.

We’ll Get There When We Get There
Last year’s results here at Roland Garros can’t be repeated. [Nadal didn’t drop a set en route to his 10th Roland Garros title in 2017]. Just because he didn’t get off to the ideal start doesn’t mean we’re panicking. Looking back, Rafa’s start to the US Open last year was difficult as well, and he wound up winning the tournament. We just need to get through the early rounds, find our rhythm and everything else will fall into place.

Bolelli Was Taking His Chances
Bolelli did what he had to do. Some points were like a coin toss; he just went for it. That was the Italian’s best option against Rafa, and Rafa knew his best option was to try and neutralise that sort of playing style. So Rafa did his all to eliminate the element of luck by limiting Bolelli’s shot selection. Like I said, we still have areas in which we need to improve and make opponents feel even less settled. It was difficult to achieve that against Bolelli in the first round.

The past several days have been difficult ones for Roberto Bautista Agut after the passing of his mother, Ester, one week ago. Things didn’t get any easier on Monday, but the Spaniard persevered and battled his way into the second round at Roland Garros by defeating Denis Istomin 6-2, 6-7(3), 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 in three hours and 30 minutes.

“That was a very emotional match, especially with everything that’s happened in the past week,” Bautista Agut said. “It was an encounter filled with highs and lows … it isn’t easy to keep your mind on the court when you’ve got all these thoughts and feelings inside your head.”

The 13th seeded Spaniard managed to gather himself going into the fourth set and finished the match with a total of 48 winners, 18 of those coming in the final two sets.

“When I was two sets to one down, I knew I had no choice but to raise my game and intensity, and I ended up playing really well from that point on,” Bautista Agut said.

Bautista Agut, who meets Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo in the second round, is determined to stay upbeat following the death of his mother and is at peace with his decision to play in Paris.

“The past few days have been difficult and it isn’t easy to get through circumstances like the one I’m in right now,” Bautista Agut said. “I believed the best thing to do would be to come (to Roland Garros) and move forward, not stay at home or hide from it all but rather keep fighting, just as I did here today.”