It took just 78 minutes for Australia to have the nation's first player through to the second round of Roland Garros, with James Duckworth emerging victorious on Sunday night (AEST).
The New South Welshman was in full control of his first-round encounter against Gabriel Diallo before the Canadian took a medical timeout and subsequently retired when trailing 6-3 4-1.
Prior to Diallo’s retirement, Duckworth had placed himself in a commanding position, winning eight of the last 10 games. He was rock solid on serve, dropping just two points on his first serve, with Diallo unable to generate a break point opportunity.
"You never like to see someone go out injured but until he pulled out, I felt like I was playing a pretty good match," said Duckworth. "I was trying to play aggressive, get on top of as many points as possible. And yeah, I think I was doing a pretty good job of that."
The dominant display saw Duckworth progress to the second round at Roland Garros for the first time since 2021, when he prevailed against Italian Salvatore Caruso.
"I have qualified a couple of times before and I feel like I've played some good tennis and lost a couple of close matches here.," said Duckworth, who thrived as Paris temperatures soared above 30 degrees.
"I do always feel a lot more comfortable when it's hotter. It changes the conditions and the court massively. And yeah, you could feel it today that the ball flies and bounces around a lot more and that suits my game a lot more."
It was also his first triumph against a top-50 player since the Almaty quarterfinals last October where he defeated world No.22 Flavio Cobolli in straight sets. Notably, Duckworth also beat Diallo there to reach the quarterfinals of the Kazakh tournament.
The 34-year-old will next face either Spanish teenager Rafael Jodar, who has recently made the Madrid and Rome Masters quarterfinals, or American Aleksandar Kovacevic.
Ajla Tomljanovic, however, was unable to advance, losing her first-round match to American Caty McNally.
After claiming the opening set, Tomljanovic couldn't hold off a fast-finishing McNally, who secured the 3-6 7-6(5) 6-3 win.
Duckworth and Tomljanovic are among a 13-player main-draw contingent entering Roland Garros 2026. Eight Australians will compete on Day 2, with Emerson Jones, Alex de Minaur and Daria Kasatkina starting their matches at 7pm (AEST). They will face Iga Swiatek, Toby Samuel and Zeynep Sonmez, respectively.
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Thanasi Kokkinakis, Aleksandar Vukic, Talia Gibson, Maya Joint and Rinky Hijikata will also be in action.
You can watch the Australians in action on the channels of the Nine Network and Stan Sport.