French Open Day 1 roundup: Petra returns, Angie bows out

While the French Open last year brought chilly temperatures and buckets of rain, the 2017 edition opened with a scorcher. And while that mostly just applied to the weather, there were a few matches of note on opening Sunday.

Here's what you need to know about Day 1 at Roland Garros:

Kerber's rut deepens

World No. 1 Angelique Kerber hasn't played up to her billing, or anywhere close, all season. She came into the French Open with flagging confidence and zero top-30 wins, and promptly got bounced in her opening match.

In fairness, Ekaterina Makarova is a solid, accomplished player and a tough first-round draw. But even given Makarova's bona fides, and Kerber's struggles this year and her limited success on clay in the past, the match was shockingly one-sided. After a year in which self-belief carried her to two major titles, Kerber looked very much like a player doubting her own abilities.

She hit 25 unforced errors to just 16 winners, won just 44 percent of her service points, held serve only twice, and converted just two of her 16 break chances to lose 6-2, 6-2. She won't lose any ground in the rankings because she lost first round here last year, too, but with finals points to defend at Wimbledon in about a month, Kerber has some soul-searching to do.

Kvitova makes a winning return

Petra Kvitova was teary-eyed as she approached the net following her 6-3, 6-2 dismantling of Julia Boserup. It was the culmination of a five-month journey back for Kvitova from the physical and emotional trauma of a home invasion that left her with stab wounds in her racket hand.

The two-time Slam champ showed surprisingly little rust, cracking 31 winners and nine aces, dropping just eight points on her first serve, and warding off the only three break points she faced.

"I'm happy with the game, of course, but it wasn't really about the game today," Kvitova said in her post-match presser.

The crowd on Philippe Chatrier roared their appreciation, and the whole tennis world celebrated her return, including her defeated foe.

Tomic is over it

Say this for Bernard Tomic: there is no more efficient loser in tennis. A decidedly disinterested Tomic got off the court in a cool 80 minutes against Dominic Thiem, slapping lazily at the ball and moving gingerly on his way to a 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 loss.

The match did, however, produce the point of the day.

Full sportsmanship points to Tomic for applauding the effort from Thiem. That's about all the credit he deserves for his short-lived French Open performance.

Venus digs in

A dark-horse contender and the lone Williams sister in the draw, 10th-seeded Venus gutted out an opening-round win over a game Qiang Wang. It wasn't exactly pretty, but the 36-year-old's compete level never wavered. Venus trailed 4-2 in the first set and 5-3 in the second, both times storming back to ultimately advance in straights, 6-4, 7-6(3).

She gets 90th-ranked Kurumi Nara next, and though Nara beat her the last time the two played, Venus should be a strong favorite, and she's got a straightforward path to at least the fourth round.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)