Defending champion Roger Federer sheltered from soaring temperatures at the French Open yesterday and watched as two pretenders to his title toiled in the Roland Garros sweatshop. French eighth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga needed five sets to see German Daniel Brands, while Ernests Gulbis, who defeated World No 1 Federer in Rome, and was regarded as a dangerous outsider here, limped to defeat. The Latvian 23rd seed, who also took Rafael Nadal to three sets in the Rome semi-finals, suffered a hamstring injury and retired against France's Julien Benneteau in Round One. "I stretched my hamstring in my right leg and I heard two cracks. I will go for a scan and hope that nothing is broken," said 21-year-old Gulbis, who was trailing 6-4, 6-2, 1-0 when he called it quits. "It's very disappointing. I prepared really well for the tournament.u00a0 "But I still have another eight or nine years in front of me, maybe 20 Grand Slams. If I concentrate on just this one, I'd go nuts," added Gulbis. Tsonga, bidding to become France's first men's champion since 1983, saw off world 89 Brands 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (2/7), 7-5, but needed three match points and almost four hours. "My opponent played well. He served really well and I wasn't at the top of my game," said Tsonga, who has been laid low recently by a bad back and was a break down in the final set.

Defending champion Roger Federer sheltered from soaring temperatures at the French Open yesterday and watched as two pretenders to his title toiled in the Roland Garros sweatshop

Federer rivals struggle in Paris heat

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Federer rivals struggle in Paris heat

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