Mistakes costly as Robson falls flat at the first hurdle in Paris

Robson has never won a main-draw match at Roland Garros while Wozniacki is a former world No 1 who has made at least the third round for the past five years.

But so poor has the Dane’s form been – this was her first win in six matches – that it seemed an ideal opportunity for a player who loves to take scalps at the grand slams.

Robson has beaten Kim Clijsters, Li Na and Petra Kvitova during the last two slams but went down 6-3 6-2 in an hour and 11 minutes.

The 19-year-old insisted the extra expectation had not unduly affected her, saying: “She’s always capable of playing a really good tournament.

“She’s always a tough person to play. You have to really beat her. She won’t give you many unforced errors. So I knew it was going to be a tough match. I just made too many mistakes.

“I think Caroline played really well and smart. She definitely knew what she wanted to do on court and I just generally wasn’t able to get into the match.”

Fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska eased into the second round with a comfortable 6-1 6-1 victory over Israel’s Shahar Peer in just under an hour.

There was an even quicker win for 15th seed Roberta Vinci, who saw off French wild card Stephanie Foretz Gacon 6-3 6-0 in 53 minutes.

Maria Sharapova began the defence of her title with a simple win on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

The second seed’s match against Hsieh Su-wei was scheduled to take place on the centre court, Philippe Chatrier, but the length of the three matches before meant it was moved.

Suzanne Lenglen has been a troublesome venue for the Russian in the past but she needed only 53 minutes to defeat Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh 6-2 6-1.

In the men’s draw, Rafael Nadal suffered through a return to grand slam tennis that at one stage looked like it would be unthinkably brief.

Since coming back from seven months out with knee problems, the Spaniard has been almost untouchable, winning six of his eight tournaments and reaching the final in the other two.

The hot favourite to extend his record of Roland Garros wins to eight, a first-round match against Daniel Brands was expected to be nothing more than a routine run-out on Court Philippe Chatrier.

At a set and 3-0 down in the second-set tie-break, the exit door was almost within Nadal’s sights.

But 26-year-old Nadal eventually found his way, going on to clinch a 4-6 7-6 (7/4) 6-4 6-3 win.