South and O'Brien crash out at Roland Garros

MELANIE South squandered a gilt-edged chance of success as she crashed out of her debut at the French Open to a teenage qualifier.

South, the British number three, won the first set without dropping a game but then stumbled when victory was in sight against Portuguese qualifier Michelle Larcher De Brito.

She finally went down 0-6, 7-6, 7-5 and - unlike Édith Piaf - will leave Paris with plenty of regrets.

This year was the first time since Jo Durie, Sara Gomer and Monique Javer in 1992, that three British woman had made the first round at in Paris but all were homeward bound by four o'clock on day two.

But in contrast to the battling South, the others lost matches most politely described as one-sided.

British number one Anne Keothavong went down to world number one Dinara Safina without winning a game while Katie O'Brien - who advanced through qualifying as a 'lucky loser' - wasn't so lucky against Olga Govortsova.

The British number two lost convincingly in just 52 minutes, going down 6-1, 6-1.

Elsewhere, Venus Williams survived a scare to beat fellow American Bethanie Mattek-Sands. The number three seed advanced 6-1, 4-6, 6-2.

Maria Sharapova was also in action in her first Grand Slam since last year's Wimbledon. She lost the first set to Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus but rebounded to win 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 in just under two hours.