London (AFP)

Gael Monfils threw in the towel but the day was pretty good Monday for the French, with Benoit Paire, Jeremy Chardy and Corentin Moutet qualified for the second round.

The 15th world player gave up when he was led 3-0 in the fifth set against his compatriot Ugo Humbert.

Decreased before the tournament by a sprained left ankle, the Parisian was treated on the court before saying stop. The fault of a new pain appeared during the match at the Achilles' heel, a much more annoying wound.

The N.16 seed has thus joined Pierre-Hugues Herbert to the rank of the vanquished of the day. The future partner of Andy Murray in doubles had indeed been eliminated by the South African giant Kevin Anderson, finalist in 2018, early afternoon.

The misery of Monfils has at least made the happiness of young Humbert, who will face Marcel Granollers in the next round.

"I do not realize yet, I'm really happy," said Messin, who is passing a Grand Slam for the second time in his career. "I enjoyed myself today, Gaël is the kind of players we want to face in his life."

In addition to Humbert, the first round has smiled on the other three Frenchmen in the running.

Jérémy Chardy and Benoît Paire qualified without too much trouble for the second round, thanks to their respective victories over Slovakia's Martin Klizan (3-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-4) and Juan Ignacio of Argentina Londero (4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4)).

- Garcia, still missed -

For Moutet, it's more surprising. The 20-year-old left-wing youngster from Paris has overthrown Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, a former world No. 3 and currently ranked 49th in the ATP rankings.

Led by two sets, Moutet finally managed a superb performance to win in five sets, 2-6, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3, 6-1.

For the two French entered Monday, the day however did not go well. Alizé Cornet was swept away by former world No.1 Victoria Azarenka, 6-4, 6-4.

"I believed in my luck, I knew that I could embarrass her but she really served better than me," analyzed the Niçoise.

Caroline Garcia, the only top-seeded Frenchman, was curtly beaten by China's Shuai Zhang (50th), in straight sets, 6-4, 6-0.

After his elimination in the second round of Roland Garros, this new premature defeat worries. Especially since the Lyonnaise had shown a rather pleasant face on grass with his first trophy of the season won in Nottingham three weeks ago and a quarter-final in Mallorca, beaten by Angelique Kerber.

? 2019 AFP