Safin crashes out

Marat Safin’s French Open campaign was ended at the second-round stage by Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic on Wednesday.

The 22nd seed, from Russia, was at odds with his game as he was defeated 6-4 6-4 7-5 on Suzanne Lenglen court.

After looking convincing in his first-round straight-sets victory over Fernando Vicente, Safin had hinted he was ready to launch an assault on a title he came closest to winning in 2002, when he reached the semi-final.

But his many errors were pounced on by his Serbian opponent, who set up a third-round date with either Tommy Robredo or Konstantinos Economidis.

Other seeds had mixed fortunes in Wednesday’s early play.

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, the 20-year-old sixth seed, powered past Santiago Giraldo 6-3 7-6 6-4, but 10th-seed Tomas Berdych was knocked out by Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in straight sets.