World number one Naomi Osaka avoided a premature end to her bid for a third straight Grand Slam title by coming from behind to reach the French Open second round.

She twice had to stop Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova serving out the match before winning 0-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-1.

The Japanese, 21, faces two-time Grand Slam champion Victoria Azarenka next.

Defending champion Simona Halep struggled in a 6-2 3-6 6-1 win over world number 47 Ajla Tomljanovic.

Schmiedlova, ranked 90th in the world, made very few errors until victory was in sight, but the pressure of a career-best win told as Osaka fought back.

US Open and Australian Open champion Osaka is playing in her first Grand Slam as the top seed.

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Halep survives wobble

Both Osaka and Halep were playing on Philippe Chatrier, the main court at Roland Garros, and both wobbled against low-ranked opponents.

Romanian Halep, whose only Grand Slam triumph came in Paris last year, looked as though she would breeze through the match at first, winning the first set in less than half an hour.

But Tomljanovic broke Halep’s serve twice to take the second set, before the world number three closed out the match in dominant fashion after four breaks in the third.

Halep, 27, is hoping to become the first player to defend the women’s singles title since Belgian Justine Henin achieved the feat in 2007.

She faces Polish world number 87 Magda Linette in the second round.

American 14th seed Madison Keys enjoyed a much more straightforward win, beating Russia’s Evgeniya Rodina 6-1 6-2, while Belarusian 11th seed Aryna Sabalenka defeated former Grand Slam finalist Dominika Cibulkova 7-5 6-1.

In one of the most anticipated ties of the round, Azarenka, 29, beat 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-4 7-6 (7-4).

• Azarenka beats Ostapenko to advance

‘Illogical’ Osaka offers logical reasons about nerves

Osaka has lost only once in the first round of a Grand Slam – at Roland Garros against Alison van Uytvanck in 2017.

That record looked in danger after a dismal 22-minute first set in which Osaka won nine points.

“This is the most nervous I have ever been my entire life during a match,” she said.

“You could see that in the first set. I was literally not hitting any balls in the court.”

Asked why she felt so nervous, Osaka said: “I can give you logical reasons, but I’m not really a logical person. So it might be something else.

“Logical reasons: first time playing a Grand Slam as number one. Won the last two, so I want to win this one really bad. I have never played on Chatrier before. This was my first time.

“And I feel like I’m having the thought of wanting to prove myself again.”

Osaka, who has been struggling with a hand injury recently, made 34 unforced errors in the opening two sets.

Schmiedlova, the 24-year-old playing her first match against a world number one and with a solitary win against a top-10 player, made only five unforced errors on her way to going a set and a break up.

But, tightening up as victory loomed, allowed Osaka to break back at 5-4 and 6-5.

“I got a little bit nervous,” Schmiedlova said. “It’s not easy to win against the world number one and I guess I felt it.

“It hurts that I lost because I had so many chances.”

Osaka’s body language steadily improved, along with her ball striking, and she dropped only six more points to take the final five games.

While she did enough to advance, she will know she must improve with Azarenka – and potentially Serena Williams further down the line – looming.

British number one Kyle Edmund needed only seven minutes to book his place in the French Open second round as he wrapped up victory in his interrupted match against Jeremy Chardy.

Resuming at 5-5 in the fifth set after bad light stopped play on Monday, Edmund won 7-6 (7-1) 5-7 6-4 4-6 7-5 at Roland Garros in Paris.

British number two Cameron Norrie lost 6-3 6-0 6-2 to French qualifier Elliot Benchetrit, while Dan Evans was beaten 6-3 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 6-2 by Spanish 23rd seed Fernando Verdasco.

It means Edmund and British women’s number one Johanna Konta are the country’s only representatives in the second round of the singles.

• Del Potro wins in French Open first round
• Murray to replace Soares with Skupski as doubles partner

Edmund made to battle in patchy performance

Edmund has dropped to 30th in the world rankings, down from 14th at the start of the year, after five successive defeats on the clay which he once described as his preferred surface.

The Yorkshireman’s attitude to his form has been rather stoic, saying there was no need to panic because he knew he was a good player.

He showed glimpses of his undoubted talent on Court One throughout the opening set – finishing in style with a dominant tie-break – before the streaky Chardy, backed by a raucous home crowd, broke twice in the second set to level.

Edmund’s unforced errors increased to 34 in the third set as he let a 4-2 lead slip, recovering to snatch back the break in the decisive 10th game.

The light began to fade in Paris and the danger of play being suspended grew as Chardy broke twice in the fourth and Edmund could not prevent it going to a gruelling decider.

Edmund crucially held off two break points at 2-2 in the fifth before the match was suspended at 5-5 – to the displeasure of a booing French crowd.

When the match resumed on Tuesday, Edmund started quickly by holding serve, then breaking to claim victory and book a meeting with Uruguayan world number 47 Pablo Cuevas.

“After having a bit of a rest, I knew I could really go intense – for half an hour or 20 minutes or however long it took,” Edmund said.

“That was my aim, to come out really firing and impose myself on him.”

The 28th seed has now made it past the opening round in all five of his appearances in Paris.

Analysis

BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller

Fuelled by six hours sleep, and a breakfast of cereal, chocolate croissant and scrambled eggs, Edmund played a near perfect seven minutes of tennis.

It was all that was required.

The British number one says “mental engagement” was the most important part of his warm-up. He ran through the scenario in his mind, anticipating plenty of noise, and telling himself he needed to be “on it from the word go.”

A first win for 50 days sets up a second-round match with Pablo Cuevas. If there’s a clay-court tournament on somewhere in the world, the chances are the Uruguayan will be there.

Norrie out after dismal display

British number two Norrie’s hopes of joining Edmund in round two were ended when he was out-powered by world number 273 Benchetrit.

The 23-year-old, ranked 49th in the world, looked devoid of belief and failed to muster a break point until the final game, losing serve six times.

Benchetrit, 20, needed only one hour 27 minutes to earn his first Grand Slam main-draw win, taking control by claiming nine games in a row from the back end of the first set.

By that time Benchetrit was already causing problems for Norrie with his hefty serve and potent forehand.

Benchetrit hit 29 winners as Norrie produced 33 unforced errors in a dismal display.

“I never found my level at all. I didn’t execute anything,” Norrie said.

He will team up with Evans, who spent almost two hours longer on court against Verdasco, in the doubles on Wednesday.

Clay is Evans’ weakest surface and the 29-year-old has now lost in the first round in both appearances at Roland Garros.

At times he pushed a player who has reached the fourth round in Paris seven times before running out of steam and needing treatment on his right calf in the fourth set.

“It was a difficult match, Fernando is a great player and I couldn’t get in front at all and that’s when you find out what the other guy is like,” Evans said.

“I felt he was pretty comfortable all the way through, he was always just ahead of me.

“It is unfortunate I didn’t get the result but I thought I played pretty well. I feel my level is very close to the top guys again. There is nothing to be negative about.”

Fifth seed Alexander Zverev came through a frustrating first-round match against world number 56 John Millman in the French Open in Paris.

German Zverev, 22, smashed his racquet several times in a 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 2-6 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 win in over four hours.

He broke Australian Millman late in the deciding set to set up a second-round tie with Swedish qualifier Mikael Ymer.

Argentine eighth seed Juan Martin del Potro came through a scare to beat Chile’s Nicolas Jarry 3-6 6-2 6-1 6-4.

Del Potro, 30, won in just over two hours against the world number 58 on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

• Britain’s Edmund through but Norrie out
• Jamie Murray to split with doubles partner Soares
• Elina Svitolina column: Beating Venus & facing friends

Zverev, who reached the quarter-finals in Paris last year, has struggled for form since stunning world number one Novak Djokovic to win the ATP Finals in November.

“Everybody keeps on saying I had a tough year. I mean, I’m still number five in the world,” he said.

“So it’s not that bad. Somebody who is having a tough year is probably outside of the top 50 or something like that. I’m still top 10 of the race. That’s what matters.”

Zverev lost to Canadian world number 18 Milos Raonic in the fourth round of the Australian Open in January, during which he smashed a racquet during a changeover.

There were several roars of frustration during an underwhelming performance on Philippe Chatrier on Tuesday.

He opened up a two-set lead but was broken twice in the third and was dominated in a fourth-set tie-break. He also had a break point saved at 3-2 up in the fifth before completing victory.

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Del Potro survives scare

Del Potro, seeking a first Grand Slam since becoming US Open champion 10 years ago, will face Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka in the second round.

A French Open semi-finalist last year, Del Potro dominated after falling a set behind as he broke Jarry’s serve five times.

Croatia’s 40-year-old Ivo Karlovic became the first man in his forties to compete in a Grand Slam singles match for 27 years as he beat Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 6-7 (9-7) 7-5.

With the combined age of 77 years, it was the oldest men’s match in history at Roland Garros.

The last player to contest a Grand Slam singles match aged 40 or older was American Jimmy Connors at the US Open in 1992.

Karlovic plays 25-year-old Australian Jordan Thompson in the second round.

Seventh seed Fabio Fognini beat fellow Italian Andreas Seppi 6-3 6-3 3-6 6-3 to reach the second round, where he will play Argentina’s Federico Delbonis.

Frenchman Gael Monfils, the 14th seed, saw off Japan’s Taro Daniel 6-0 6-4 6-1 to set up a meeting with Adrian Mannarino.

Two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka beat Latvian former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the first round in Paris.

Azarenka, 43rd in the world, won 6-4 7-6 (7-4) in a match full of twists.

Neither player managed to hold serve until the ninth game, when Azarenka moved 5-4 up in the opening set.

The Belarusian had two match points saved in the second and was broken for a second time before she won the deciding tie-break.

Latvian world number 39 Ostapenko, who won the title at Roland Garros in 2017, has now been knocked out in the first round for the third time in four years.

It is also the second successive Grand Slam tournament at which she has failed to make the second round.

Azarenka, who has beaten Czech second seed Karolina Pliskova and Ukrainian ninth seed Elina Svitolina on clay in the past month, will face world number one Naomi Osaka – who survived an almighty scare against Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova – in the next round.

“Just the usual second round match,” Azarenka said, after learning of her next opponent. “But it’s going to be exciting for me. I love to challenge myself against the best players.”

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Briton Jamie Murray and Brazilian Bruno Soares are out of the French Open in their last tournament together.

The second seeds lost to unseeded Italians Lorenzo Sonego and Matteo Berrettini 4-6 7-5 7-6 (7-4).

Soares told Brazilian press the duo will split after Roland Garros, but Murray has yet to comment.

The Scot will now link up with fellow Briton Neal Skupksi, who confirmed the partnership after his French Open win with older brother Ken on Tuesday.

Murray and Soares broke serve at 5-4 up to take the first set, but the Italians levelled the match with a late break in the second.

The deciding set went to a tie-break and Sonego and Berrettini held on to claim an upset.

‘A good time for a change’

Murray and Soares teamed up in 2016 and won the Australian Open and US Open that year.

But Soares told Brazilian website matchtiebreak.com: “Jamie called me and we chatted, where he told me that no matter how much the results are coming out, they did not match the expectation we had.

“And he thought it would be a good time for us to change.”

Murray and Skupski have entered the grass-court tournament at s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands the week after Roland Garros.

Earlier this month he dismissed suggestions he could team up with his brother – former world number one singles player Andy – in the doubles at Wimbledon.

Earlier on Tuesday, Skupski raced through to the second round with his brother after beating fellow Brits Jonny O’Mara and Luke Bambridge in straight sets.

The Skupskis won 6-1 6-2 but face a tougher challenge in the next round, where they will likely face 16-time Grand Slam winners Bob and Mike Bryan.

• French Open: Kyle Edmund beats Jeremy Chardy to reach second round
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