Britain still retains involvement on three fronts in this year's French Open Tennis championships after the opening round of matches. Their number one singles players, Andy Murray and Heather Watson came through their contests as expected. Kyle Edmund joined them in round two after battling past home favourite, Stephane Robert in a topsy-turvy five-setter. There was disappointment for both of the British number two players though, as Jo Konta and Aljaz Bedene both went out.
Edmund coming of age
Kyle Edmund seems to be coming of age in the cauldron of the French Open, as he continued his winning ways in the first round proper.
After confirming his place in the tournament by successfully coming through three qualifying rounds last week, the 20-year-old now has a first victory at a Grand Slam to fall back on as well.
He had to battle hard though to finally outlast 35-year-old Frenchman, Robert. Despite the heavily partisan crowd roaring their approval for their player's efforts, Edmund displayed a maturity that bodes well for the future by taking the match 2-6 6-4 6-3 5-7 6-2. It was well after 9pm local time when the South-African born Brit finally completed the victory, a well-earned scalp after almost three hours of exhilarating action.
After cramping up towards the latter stages of the contest, Edmund will hopefully recover fully for the second round.
He will need to raise his game another notch one suspects though, with the dangerous Aussie Nick Kyrgios his next opponent. Many more performances like this and he may well be toasting a top 100 ranking soon.
Murray has become a bit of a mentor for young Edmund, having offered him advice in the past and texted his congratulations after the win.
Murray through against a qualifier
World number three Murray had joined the crowd to cheer his teammate on to victory, after somewhat predictably disposing of his first-round opponent. Argentina's Facundo Arguello still had to be beaten though, and the Scot will have been relatively pleased with his 6-3 6-3 6-1 success.
He next faces Portugal's Joao Sousa.
Watson overcame more French opposition
On the women's side, the far higher-ranked Watson had to battle more than she may have hoped for before clinching a straight-sets win over Mathilde Johansson. The 6-4 7-5 score-line slightly underplayed the effort that Watson had to put in to overcome her determined French rival.
Johansson raised her game, egged on by the vociferous French support. She had looked likely to take the first set when leading 4-2, only for Watson to grittily battle back and take the next four games in succession. It was a similar pattern in set two, with the home player 5-4 up and serving for the set. Watson toughed it out to fight back once more and close the match out.
Next up for Watson is America's Sloane Stephens, a woman she has defeated on all four of their previous encounters. The 23-year-old Guernsey player will hope to continue that trend in France.