Australian No.1 Sam Stosur shook off a sluggish start to demolish Romanian qualifier Simona Halep and steam into the second round of the French Open.
Stosur accounted for Halep 7-5, 6-1 in just over an hour to join less heralded Australians Sophie Ferguson (qualifier) and Carsten Ball (wildcard) in winning first up matches at Roland Garros.
Peter Luczak, Jelena Dokic and Alicia Molik weren't so fortunate, being barrelled out of the tournament in straight sets by defending champion Roger Federer, 24th seed Lucie Safarova and fourth seed Jelena Jankovic respectively.
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Seventh seed Stosur was one of the last on court on a warm day in Paris and she slipped to a 4-2 deficit in the opening set before overwhelming Halep.
"Even though I was 4-2 down I still felt like I was playing alright and I had break points on her first service game so I knew I was able to break her," she said.
"It was just a matter of doing so.
"It would have been better not to be 4-2 down but I didn't panic or do anything like that."
"It is nice to be in the second round and I hope I can keep on playing better and better."
Stosur next meets veteran Rossana De Los Rios of Paraguay and is on course to meet four-time champion Justine Henin in the fourth round.
Tony Roche-coached Ferguson earlier caused a boilover by defeating Czech Petra Kvitova 1-6 6-2 6-2, the 142nd-ranked Sydneysider reaching the second round of a major for the first time in five years.
The 24-year-old claimed victory in just under two hours on court 14 and said that Roche had made her believe she was capable of playing at the top level.
"I played three really good matches in qualifying and he just kept telling me that you belong here and believe that you belong here and back your game."
Ferguson set up a second round clash with Italian Francesca Schiavone.
She wasn't the only Australian to surprise with world No.132 Ball outlasting German Philipp Petzschner 3-6 6-7 (4-7) 6-2 7-5 9-7 in three hours and 45 minutes.
It is also only the second time that 22-year-old Ball has reached the second round of a grand slam, defeating the world No.39 on his fifth match point.
He will meet Victor Troicki in the next round.
Federer earlier played with Luczak at times in his 6-4 6-1 6-2 win on centre court and the Australian was man enough to admit as much.
"If it was anyone else I would have been pretty angry," Luczak said.
"But he just had it on a string and was just toying with me at the end."
Lleyton Hewitt opens his campaign late on Tuesday local time against Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.
Fellow Australian Anastasia Rodionova takes on Russian Ekaterina Makarova in the first round and Jarmila Groth meets Yung-Jan Chan.
