Gonzalez drops out of Roland Garros in first round

PARIS, May 29 (Reuters) Swashbuckling Chilean Fernando Gonzalez will not get a chance to repeat his Australian Open heroics after he slumped to a 6-2 6-2 6-4 defeat by Radek Stepanek in the French Open first round today.

On a day of upsets, the fifth seed followed third seed Andy Roddick out of the tournament after he failed to offer any form of challenge to Czech Stepanek.

After wasting three match points at 5-3 in the third set, Stepanek made no mistake in the next game and closed out the victory in one hour 52 minutes to the delight of his fiancee Martina Hingis, who was watching courtside.

Gonzalez had led a charmed life in Melbourne to reach the final of the season's first grand slam but in Paris, his best showing remains a quarter-final appearance in 2003.

REUTERS SAM BST0035