As top seeds at the French Open keep falling by the wayside, the big guns up for some tennis on Wednesday will need to be at their best to avoid being embarrassed early in the Grand Slam.
The likes of Stanislas Wawrinka, Li Na and Caroline Wozniacki, the latter perhaps not too surprising considering the events that led to her playing at Roland Garros, have been sent packing in the first round, making this French Open an exciting and unpredictable major.
Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams are some of the favourites set to take court on Day 4 Wednesday, and none of them will want to be the next big casualty at the French Open.
Venus Williams opens up proceedings at the centre-court – the Philippe Chatrier -- with the American veteran taking on unheralded Anna Schmiedlova of Slovakia. Venus' match will be followed by world number 2 Djokovic taking on home favourite Jeremy Chardy.
Chardy is a player easily capable of knocking off the big players, as shown at the Rome Masters recently, when he got the better of the great Roger Federer, and Djokovic will know the importance of being at his best, which has been over the past week and a bit.
"Considering my next opponent, playing French tennis player in France, we all know how challenging that is," the Serbian said after his straight set first round win over Joao Sousa. "He had a big win against Federer in Rome, so I'm sure he's very motivated to play his best.
"But I was looking forward to this tournament for a long time. I'm in good form, and hopefully I can use that against Chardy."
Following Djokovic vs Chardy at the Philippe Chatrier is a match involving another Frenchman, someone who is a lot popular and who the local public will undoubtedly be backing to go a long way in the tournament.
Jo Wilfried-Tsonga faces an extremely tricky second round match, though, against the dangerous Australian Jurgen Melzer. Tsonga will hope to get past that difficult encounter, with the next match on the showpiece court also set to be an interesting one as Russian Maria Sharapova goes up against Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria.
Pironkova is a player who usually saves her best for Wimbledon, so Sharapova, who beat compatriot Ksenia Pervak in the opening round, should be able to negotiate the Bulgarian in the second round.
Serena and Federer will be on action at the Suzanne Lenglen, with the American up against Garbine Muguruza of Spain, while the Swiss legend takes on Diego Sebastian Schwartzman of Argentina.
On paper, both matches look pretty straightforward, but then early round upsets are a part of parcel of Grand Slams.
Schedule of play (Play starts 11 am local time, 2.30 pm IST): Philippe Chatrier: Anna Schmiedlova (SVK) vs 29-Venus Williams (USA).
Jeremy Chardy (FRA) vs 2-Novak Djokovic (SRB).
13-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) vs Jurgen Melzer (AUT).
Tsvetana Pironokova (BUL) vs 7-Maria Sharapova (RUS).
Suzanne Lenglen: Alejandro Gonzalez (COL) vs 29-Gilles Simon (FRA).
1-Serena Williams (USA) vs Garbine Muguruza (ESP).
Diego Sebastian Schwartzman (ARG) vs 4-Roger Federer (SUI).
20-Alize Cornet (FRA) vs Taylor Townsend (USA).
Where to Watch Live:
The play is scheduled for an 11 am local time (2.30 pm IST) start with live coverage on Neo Sports and Neo Prime in India. International viewers, including India, can catch the action via live streaming HERE or HERE. Listen to the action HERE. Viewers in the US can live stream the matches HERE or HERE, while the second round can be live streamed by UK viewers HERE.
