Top-seeds Stefan Edberg and Monica Seles scored easy victories at the French Open today, while No. 8 seed Zina Garrison became the first seeded woman beaten.
Edberg rolled over Belgium's Bart Wuyts, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 after Boris Becker, the No. 2 seed, disposed of Spain's Jordi Arrese 6-2, 7-5, 6-2.A French championship would give Becker the only Grand Slam title he has never won and give him another 1991 Grand Slam victory to go with the Australian Open he won in January.
He's never won a clay court tournament, but said of Roland Garros stadium, "It's not a bad place to start."
Edberg, like Becker, has never won the French Open.
Seles, seeking to defend not only her French Open title but also her No. 1 ranking, overpowered Czech Radka Zrubakova 6-3, 6-0.
Third-seeded Gabriela Sabatini, who along with Steffi Graf is hoping to replace Seles as No. 1, crushed American Marianne Werdel 6-1, 6-1.
Garrison, a serve-and-volley player more comfortable on fast courts than the clay of Roland Garros, lost 6-4, 6-0 to Naoko Sawamatsu, giving the Japanese teenager her biggest victory ever.
No. 5 seed Arantxa Sanchez Vicario demolished Lori McNeil 6-2, 6-2 in exactly one hour, rifling passing shots past the net-rushing American. The No. 9 seed, Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere, beat Nanne Dahlman of Finland, 6-2, 6-2, and 13th seeded Nathalie Tauziat beat a fellow French player, Pascale Ethemendy, 6-3, 6-1.
Sanchez Vicario, 19, won the tournament in 1989 but lost in the second round last year.
In the men's field, 8th-seeded Goran Ivanisevic of Yugoslavia defeated France's Frederic Fontang, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-1, and ninth-seeded Jim Courier advanced over fellow American Derrick Rostagno 6-3, 6-3, 6-0. But No. 14 seed Karel Novacek of Czechoslovakia retired midway through his match with Sweden's Magnus Gustafson after twisting an ankle.
Sawamatsu, 18, is ranked 35th in the world and is Japan's top-rated woman player. But she had only two previous Grand Slam victories, against unseeded opponents in first-round matches last year at the French and U.S. Opens, when she was still an amateur.
"I was so nervous," Sawamatsu said. "But someone told me I had a chance."
Seles was the surprise champion a year ago, dominating Graf in the final. Now, it's the 17-year-old Yugoslav's turn to be the target.
But both Sabatini, ranked third in the world, and Graf, seeded second at Paris and ranked No. 2, can supplant Seles as No. 1 by winning the year's second Grand Slam tournament.