Paris (AFP)

Started in the drizzle with the defeat of Jeremy Chardy, the day of the French finally turned to handsome, Tuesday at Roland Garros, with the performance "solid" Lucas Pouille and the qualification "with the means of the edge" of Caroline Garcia.

The laborious qualification of Alexander Zverev (N.5 world) opening program on the Central Philippe-Chatrier, then the long fight of the N.1 Naomi Osaka have forced Gael Monfils, tricolor greatest hope and last Blue to enter lice, to wait a long time. At 19:30, he still had to wait until the titleholder Simona Halep and Ajla Tomljanovic broke into the court.

Puglia (26th in the world), who has been struggling with confidence since her semi-final at the Australian Open in January, was satisfied with a "solid" match to overturn the Italian qualifier Simone Bolelli (187), 6-3 , 6-4, 7-5.

"I have a lot of frustrations with not being able to go after Melbourne, but I know that my tennis has not disappeared," he said, explaining that for him, "confidence is every week a new beginning. "

"If I had won (the Masters 1000 of) Rome or Madrid, it would have said + yeah, he will win Roland! + But I won Bordeaux", a tournament Challenger, the 2nd division, pointed the trained player by Amélie Mauresmo.

He says he wants to "go far" on Paris clay this year. To equal his best result, third round the last two editions, it will start by removing the Slovak Martin Klizan (55th).

For her part, Garcia (22nd World) was still in Strasbourg on Saturday to play the final and debuted without any reference, if not the morning warm-up, on the court Suzanne-Lenglen where she finally dismissed the German Mona Barthel (86th) 6-2, 6-4.

- "Good start" -

The French N.1 has recognized a certain nervousness in approaching this Grand Slam tournament, except for "this last setback which is off to a good start" ... and on which it won its match by putting Barthel at kilometers of the ball.

"Sometimes my balls were a bit too short, they were not always as long as I wanted," she admitted, "but overall, in my head it was pretty clear about what I had to do the bases were there, the realization was not perfect, but it's a first lap and the goal is to go with the means of the edge, "she said.

In the next round, she will face the Russian Anna Blinkova, 117th and after qualifications.

Full sun also for the qualifying Elliot Benchetrit, 20 years and 273rd world, who dismissed the British Cameron Norrie (49th) 6-3, 6-0, 6-2.

"I saw a pretty clear tactic from the start, which allowed me to stay fairly calm throughout the match," he said.

The second round, which he had been deprived by Monfils last year, Benchetrit will play against the Serb Dusan Lajovic (35th), finalist in Monte Carlo in April.

- 10 minutes -

Jeremy Chardy, he played only 10 minutes Tuesday, the time to lose the two games that cost him the match interrupted the night before at 5-5 in the last leg. Kyle Edmund of Britain (30), winner 7-6 (7/1), 5-7, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, will face Urugayen Pablo Cuevas (47th) in the 2nd tower.

Grégoire Barrère (127) and Antoine Hoang (146) also qualified on Tuesday, while the ladies Harmony Tan (265) and Chloé Paquet (166) were eliminated.

The day was also marked by the difficult start of Alexander Zverev (5th), who fought over 4 hours to eliminate John Millman (46th) 7-6 (7/4), 6-3, 2-6 , 6-7 (5/7), 6-3.

"It was hard today," said the German, "most importantly, I'm still in the tournament, and that's all that matters."

He should have a quieter second round against a qualifying player, Sweden's Mikael Ymer (148).

Not easy either for Osaka, victorious in the last two Grand Slam tournaments (US Open and Australian Open), which took nearly 2 hours to beat the 90th World Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 0-6, 7-6 (7 / 4), 6-1.

? 2019 AFP