Nadal needs five sets to advance in France

PARIS, May 24 (UPI) -- Rafael Nadal, who has lost once in six years at Roland Garros in Paris, was pushed to five sets before claiming a first-round win Tuesday at the French Open.

Nadal, No. 1 in the world and seeking a record-tying sixth French Open title, dropped a pair of tiebreakers but still prevailed 6-4, 6-7 (2-7), 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 6-4 over John Isner. It was the first time Nadal played a five-set match in the French Open.

Isner kept in the match despite 58 unforced errors -- Nadal had just 27 -- by fighting off 10 break points. He had just once such opportunity versus Nadal -- and finished it off -- as Nadal won 78 percent of the points on serve and improved to 39-1 in his French Open career.

In other first-round matches early Tuesday, fourth-seeded Andy Murray dispatched Eric Prodon 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 and No. 5-seeded Robin Soderling -- the player who owns that French Open win over Nadal -- defeated Ryan Harrison 6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 7-5. Also, No. 8-seeded Jurgen Melzer topped Andreas Beck 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 and 16th-seeded Fernando Verdasco advanced over Juan Monaco 6-2, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.

Lukasz Kubot pulled off a 3-6, 2-6, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 upset of 11th-seeded Nicolas Almagro. The match took nearly 4 hours with Kubot converting two fifth-set break points to advance.

Other seeded winners Tuesday were 18th-seeded Gilles Simon, No. 20 Florian Mayer, No. 21 Alexandr Dolgopolov, No. 24 Sam Querrey and 32nd-seeded Kevin Anderson.

Unseeded players earning second-round berths included Jeremy Chardy, Arnaud Clement, Ivan Ljubicic, Lukas Rosol, Robin Haase, Pablo Andujar, Andreas Haider-Maurer, Juan Ignacio Chela and Xavier Malisse.