Roger Federer still does not think Sunday is best but there were no opening-day dramas for the Swiss star at the French Open tennis tournament.
Play began on a Sunday for the first time in Paris in 2006, and Federer voiced his unhappiness at being made to play on that occasion after struggling past Diego Hartfield.
He was up against a qualifier again in Pablo Carreno-Busta, and it was a match Federer took very seriously given the 21-year-old Spaniard has won 56 matches already this year.
But all his seven titles have come at the third tier Futures level and the step up to facing Federer on Court Philippe Chatrier proved, not surprisingly, too great as the second seed triumphed 6-2 6-2 6-3.
Federer said of the Sunday starts: “I remember they sort of forced me to play years back to promote their Sunday thing.
“I was against it just because I felt like the way they got the Sunday, first it was, ‘Oh, let’s try it out.’ Next thing you know they have it for a lifetime or what?
“So I didn’t agree with how things went along. From that standpoint today, it is what it is, but it is the only grand slam that has it.”
While it was a straightforward first round for Federer, that was certainly not the case for 15th seed Gilles Simon, who survived a five-set battle with Lleyton Hewitt.
That it went to five sets was not a surprise but there was no shortage of twists and turns as the Frenchman fought back from two sets down for the first time in his career.
Hewitt, 32, rolled back the years as he raced through the first two sets for the loss of only four games, but Simon changed the momentum in the third set and was poised for victory when he moved 5-0 ahead in the decider.
Remarkably, Hewitt won the next five games, saving two match points at 5-2, but he could not complete the comeback as Simon clinched a 3-6 1-6 6-4 6-1 7-5 win.
The Australian, now ranked 86th, said: “The first two sets I played pretty well. I went out there with a pretty good game plan, I think, and I executed it perfectly for the first couple of sets.
“He changed his game a little bit and gave me absolutely no free points for the next three sets. It wasn’t until he was nearly across the finish line that I started getting a couple of cheap points out of him again and he served a lot better.
“It’s disappointing but I didn’t obviously come here with massive expectations. He’s a quality player as well.”
Simon said: “It was really difficult. I had to work a lot. It always feels a bit strange.”
Fourth seed David Ferrer was a straight-sets winner, the Spaniard defeating Australia’s Marinko Matosevic 6-4 6-3 6-4.
There were also wins for Milos Raonic, Kevin Anderson, Jeremy Chardy, Andreas Seppi and Sam Querrey while Serbia’s Viktor Troicki bt American James Blake 6-4 6-2 6-2.
Michael Llodra survived a wobble to see off Belgian opponent Steve Darcis 6-4 4-6 6-1 6-4.