Portuguese involvement at tennis’ second Grand Slam tournament of the year turned out to be short lived.
While Michelle Larcher Brito failed to come through qualifying at the French Open, at least Rui Machado and Frederico Gil’s standings in the world rankings merited direct entry to the first round proper.
The first mentioned Algarvian appearead to be going well against home favourite Julien Benneteau when taking the opening set 6-4, but when the partisan Suzanne Lenglen show court crowd got behind their man the Frenchman recovered to close out the match 6-1, 6-2, 6-0.
Davis Cup team mate Gil was drawn against world No29 Marcos Baghdatis for his opener and suffered a 7-6, 6-2, 6-2 defeat.
