Watson’s hopes are flushed away on return as Robson suffers injury blow

The 21-year-old had not played since March because of glandular fever and did not begin even light training until three weeks ago, so there was plenty to be encouraged about in her 6-4 2-6 6-4 defeat by Swiss Stefanie Voegele.

But Watson, who has come through qualifying at Roland Garros to reach the second round in the past two seasons, had high hopes she could do better this year.

She said: “I’m really disappointed. I saw the draw. I thought I had a good draw and a good chance to get through to the next round.

“I knew it was going to be tough, my first match back. But still I’m super disappointed I lost. I was finding it tough to string points together and focus every single point. My mind was kind of wandering at certain times.”

As encouraging as Watson’s performance was, it also meant that, with Andy Murray missing the tournament through injury, no British player made the second round in the singles for the first time in Paris since 2007 and the first time at a grand slam since the Australian Open in 2008.

Laura Robson’s miserable French Open was complete when she pulled out of the women’s doubles because of back pain.

The 19-year-old won only five games on Monday in her first-round singles match against former world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki but had been due to compete in the doubles with American Lisa Raymond.

The pair reached the final of the WTA event in Miami in March but Robson was advised by a doctor not to play on.

Wozniacki’s joy at having ended her run of five straight defeats on clay by beating Robson proved to be just a temporary renaissance as she lost in the second round to Bojana Jovanovski.

Jovanovski also beat the 10th seed and former world No 1 in Rome two weeks ago despite struggling with injury and used her greater power to good effect, winning 7-6 (7/2) 6-3.

The Serb will next play former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, unseeded here and a three-set winner over Magdalena Rybarikova today.

Earlier in the day, third seed Victoria Azarenka enjoyed a comfortable win over Elena Vesnina in the first round, going through after a 6-1 6-4 victory.

In the men’s draw, Roger Federer strolled into the third round after a 6-2 6-1 6-1 victory over India’s Somdev Devvarman.