Birrell stuns Pegula and the best of the rest of Roland Garros Round 1

The first round of Roland Garros delivered a "save the best for last" finish, as World No. 83 Kimberly Birrell snapped a five-match losing streak and came from a set down to stun No. 5 seed Jessica Pegula 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 to reach the second round in Paris for the first time.

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Birrell is now one win away from her first trip to the third round of a Major since 2019. The victory also ends her streak of nine straight first-round losses at Grand Slams dating back to 2023. For Pegula, it marks the second year in a row she has suffered at least one first-round exit at a Slam, after falling in her Wimbledon opener last year.

It was fitting the round closed with a match in which Birrell won fewer points on serve, on return and overall, yet still found a way through. Because while Pegula's loss may have been the most surprising of the opening three days, she was only the latest seeded player to fall early.

To see which other top players were sent packing, and everything else you need to know from the first round at Roland Garros, here's your full rundown.

Who's left

Pegula was the only Top 10 player to fall victim to an upset, but there was still plenty of chaos among the Top 32 seeds. In all, seven seeded players lost.

They were Pegula, No. 12 Linda Noskova, No. 14 Ekaterina Alexandrova, No. 20 Liudmila Samsonova, No. 21 Clara Tauson, No. 24 Leylah Fernandez and No. 31 Cristina Bucsa.

Among that group, Noskova's loss to Maria Sakkari may have been the most surprising. After a strong clay season, including quarterfinals in Stuttgart and Madrid and a win over Coco Gauff in the latter, she was considered a contender for a deep run in Paris. But a vintage performance from Sakkari, a former Top 5 player who came within one point of the Roland Garros final in 2021, produced a 7-5, 7-6 (3) win over the Czech.

Another notable result came from the qualifier Maja Chwalinska, who dropped just four games in a 6-4, 6-0 upset of last year's quarterfinalist Zheng Qinwen. Zheng, also a former Top 5 player and the 2024 Olympic gold medalist on the Roland Garros clay, is still working her way back from injury.

She was joined by Lois Boisson, another player returning from a long injury layoff, as quarterfinalists from last year who exited in the opening round. Boisson reached the last four in 2025 but fell 6-2, 6-2 to No. 22 seed Anna Kalinskaya.

Longest matches

Kalinskaya needed just 79 minutes to advance, a far cry from some of the feature-film-length battles that unfolded in Round 1, the longest being a 2-hour, 58-minute thriller between Magda Linette and Tereza Valentova.

What that match had in excitement was matched only by the drama. Linette could barely walk midway through the decider -- which she trailed by a break -- and was forced to serve underarm at one stage yet still managed to emerge victorious just before the three-hour mark.

It was one of several matches that lasted upward of 2 hours and 30 minutes:

• 2:58- Linette d. Valentova 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (9)
• 2:54- Kamilla Rakhimova d. Jaqueline Cristian 6-3, 4-6, 6-4
• 2:53- No. 26 Hailey Baptiste d. Barbora Krejcikova 6-7 (7), 7-6 (6), 6-2
• 2:48- McCartney Kessler d. Guo Hanyu 4-6, 7-6 (1), 7-5
• 2:40- Caty McNally d. Ajla Tomljanovic 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3
• 2:39- Francesca Jones d. Beatriz Haddad Maia 1-6, 7-6(4), 6-2

Just missing the list was a classic comeback from Rome champion Elina Svitolina over Anna Bondar. The No. 7 seed dropped the opening set but fought back to post a 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (3) win in 2 hours and 26 minutes. The victory served as redemption for Svitolina, who had lost their last two meetings in Madrid last month and in the first round of last year's US Open.

Svitolina now leads the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz head-to-head 3-2 and has beaten Bondar at Roland Garros for the second straight year.

Best match

But even that dramatic comeback couldn't top the match of Round 1, an honor that goes to Baptiste's come from behind win over Krejcikova, the 2021 Roland Garros champion. Baptiste saved two match points in the second set and outlasted the Czech in a tiebreak before dominating the third to close out the nearly three-hour victory.

It was a rare match that was highly anticipated and somehow exceeded expectations, even with a slight letdown from Krejcikova in the decider. Baptiste was unstoppable on serve, as is often the case. She hit 10 aces, won 79% of her first-serve points, was broken only once and faced just three break points across the entire match.

Six players earn first Grand Slam main-draw win

It was the 12th Grand Slam match win for Baptiste and marked the fifth consecutive Slam in which she has advanced out of the first round. For Francesca Jones (previously 0-6), Antonia Ruzic (0-2), Marina Bassols Ribera (0-1), Oleksandra Oliynykova (0-1), Susan Bandecchi (main-draw debut) and Kaitlin Quevedo (main-draw debut), each earned their first Grand Slam main-draw win.

For Jones, it comes five years after her Grand Slam main-draw debut at the Australian Open in 2021 and eight years after she first appeared in Wimbledon qualifying in 2018 as a 17-year-old. Now 25, Jones needed a comeback of her own to advance. Like Baptiste, she had to survive a second-set tiebreak. Haddad Maia led by a break in both the second and third sets but couldn't close it out.

Quevedo, who made waves by beating Venus Williams in Madrid, is now a Grand Slam match winner after advancing through qualifying and defeating local favorite Leolia Jeanjean 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2) in just over two hours in another one of the better first-round matches. Bandecchi joined her as a winner on debut, taking out Bucsa in three sets for her first Top 50 win. It was only her second tour-level win and her first since Lausanne 2022.

Swiss revolution

Bandecchi is one of four Swiss players who advanced out of the first round, joining No. 11 seed Belinda Bencic, Viktorija Golubic and Jil Teichmann to give Switzerland a perfect 4-0 record in Round 1. Teichmann's 6-4, 6-4 upset of Samsonova was her first Top 30 win since Indian Wells 2023 and comes in just her sixth tournament back after a mental-health break that spanned from last September to April.

French hopefuls fight on

Two Frenchwomen remain in the draw, as Elsa Jacquemot and Dianne Parry won their opening matches. Jacquemot defeated qualifier Linda Fruhvirtova in straight sets, while Parry came back to beat Anhelina Kalinina 0-6, 6-2, 6-4 in 2 hours and 25 minutes.

It's the third time Jacquemot has reached the second round of her home Slam and the fifth time for Parry. Their compatriots didn't fare as well, as French players went 2-6 in the opening round.

Jacquemot faces World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the second round, while Parry will matchup with No. 30 seed Ann Li.

Round 2 matches to keep an eye on

No. 16 seed Naomi Osaka strutted her way to a Round 1 win over Laura Siegemund in straight sets, defeating the German 6-3, 7-6 (3). She will face 2024 Olympic silver medalist Donna Vekic next in what can officially be designated a "Match to watch™️." The winner will face either No. 17 seed Iva Jovic or Strasbourg champion Emma Navarro in what also looks to be one of the more tightly contested matchups.

Both Jovic and Navarro knocked out breakout stars from 2025 in Alexandra Eala and Janice Tjen, respectively, and will now face off in an all-American derby in Round 2.