Emotional win for Johnson

Still mourning the recent death of his father, a tennis coach who helped Johnson learn the game back home in California, Steve Johnson, the 25th-seeded American, managed to edge Borna Coric 6-2, 7-6 (8), 3-6, 7-6 (6) yesterday and reach the French Open’s third round.

The 12th-seeded Frenchman JoWilfried Tsonga left meekly on Day 4 of his country’s championship, eliminated 7-5, 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-4 by 91stranked Renzo Olivo of Argentina after only one game in a match suspended a night earlier because of darkness. It was the 2008 Australian Open runner-up Tsonga’s first loss in the first round in Paris since his debut 12 years ago.

Winners included defending champion Novak Djokovic and nine-time champion Rafael Nadal among the men, and defending champion Garbine Muguruza, former No. 1s Venus Williams (whose pregnant sister Serena was in the stands) and Caroline Wozniacki among the women.

There were a couple of surprises: No. 6 Dominika Cibulkova was beaten 6-4, 6-3 by 114th-ranked Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, while 18-year-old Californian CiCi Bellis defeated No. 18 Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 6-3, 7-6 (5).

Two-time major champion Petra Kvitova, who needed surgery on her left hand after a knife attack at her home in December, bowed out in the second match of her comeback, a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) loss to American qualifier Bethanie Mattek-Sands.