Chinese star Li at French Open

Former champion Li Na, the second-seeded Chinese superstar and Australian Open winner, was sensationally dumped out of the French Open in the first round Tuesday, beaten by a tearful Kristina Mladenovic.

Li, the 2011 champion, went down 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 to the 103rd-ranked blonde Frenchwoman, the Roland Garros junior champion in 2009, to suffer her first opening round defeat in Paris in eight visits.

Li’s shock defeat means that both Australian Open champions have been knocked out in the first round after Stan Wawrinka’s listless defeat on Monday.

Other early winners on Tuesday were Svetlana Kuznetsova, the Russian 27th seed and 2009 champion, who beat Georgia’s Sofia Shapatava 6-3, 6-1 while 43-year-old Kimiko Date Krumm of Japan, a semi-finalist in 1995, lost 6-3, 0-6, 6-2 to Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the 24th seed.

Later Tuesday, Spanish fifth seed David Ferrer, last year’s runner-up to Rafael Nadal, begins his 12th Roland Garros against Dutch world 55 Igor Sijsling.

Former women’s champion Ana Ivanovic, the Serb 11th seed, plays French world number 43 Caroline Garcia.

Former men’s world number one Lleyton Hewitt, now at 46 in the world, begins his 14th Roland Garros against unseeded Argentine Carlos Berlocq.