Shahar Peer was the most high profile Jewish casualty in the first round at Roland Garros, crashing out to a player ranked 132 places below her.
The 17th seed Israeli continued her poor run with a three-set defeat against Australian Samantha Stosur. Tzipi Obziler (91) put up a brave fight before going down in similar fashion against eighth seed Venus Williams. Obziler, 35 succumbed 6-2 in the decider. She said: “Naturally I’m disappointed but I can take a lot of satisfaction from the ability I showed.”
In the men’s singles, Dudi Sela missed a golden opportunity to reach the second round, going down in a five-set thriller against Romanian Victor Hanescu (78). In a match that took place over three days due to persistent rain in Paris, the 23-year-old failed to take advantage of a relatively easy draw. At one stage he led by two sets to one but finally bowing out 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, 4-6, 3-6.
Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich will look to do better in the doubles.