Sania Mirza in action against Anastasia Myskina in their Round I match at Roland Garros on Tuesday. Myskina won 6-4, 6-1. (AP)

Paris: Andy Roddick, the fifth seed, was knocked out of the French Open when he retired from his first round match with Spain's Alberto Martin on Tuesday.

The American was trailing 6-4, 7-5, 1-0 when he called it quits.

Roddick,picked up an ankle injury at the World Team Cup in Dusseldorf last week.Martina Hingis and Justine Henin-Hardenne warmed to their task at a chilly Roland Garros, but in-form Russian third seed Nadia Petrova was a surprise first round loser.

Petrova, who has won four titles this season, looked well short of her best in a 6-2, 6-2 defeat by Japan’s Akiko Morigami.

Former world No. 1 Venus Williams was eyeing a place back in the top 10 after she began her French Open title bid with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Austrian Sybille Bammer in the first round on Monday. (as reported in Tuesday’s Late City edition)

Hingis, back at Roland Garros after a five-year absence, trounced American Lisa Raymond 6-2, 6-2 in a first round match played in a temperature of little more than 10 degrees Celsius.

The Paris air had warmed a little by the time defending champion Henin-Hardenne took to centre court and the Belgian was a comfortable 6-3, 6-0 winner over Estonian Maret Ani.

Petrova, so often in the shadow of her Grand Slam-winning compatriots Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anastasia Myskina, has won three claycourt titles this season and had real hope of making a breakthrough in Paris.

She suffered a pectoral injury winning the Berlin title earlier this month, however, and looked sluggish and short of power on court two.

Petrova’s defeat was a boost for Henin-Hardenne, who was in line to face the imposing Russian in the last eight.

The claycourt event is the only Grand Slam missing from Hingis’ collection, and in 1999 she was mocked by the Paris crowd after throwing a tantrum during her defeat in the final by Steffi Graf.

On Tuesday, though, the 25-year-old was all sunny smiles, despite the weather.

“I was like ouff!” said Hingis. “But I’m from a cold country so it shouldn’t be such a big factor.”

The 12th seed reached the Australian Open quarter finals at the start of the year and won her first title since returning from a three-year break at the Italian Open this month.

She is on a quarter final collision course with second seed Kim Clijsters of Belgium and is determined not to raise expectations too high.

Croatian fourth seed Ivan Ljubicic rattled through to round two with a 6-2, 6-0, 6-3 thrashing of Argentine Carlos Berlocq.

Paris-based Australian Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis advanced to round two with a four-set win over Spain’s Albert Portas.