There is a fanciful notion that it’s all the blood, sweat and tears spilled by tennis players over the years which gives the Roland Garros courts their red hue.

Tuesday was certainly a day of hurt for the American men, with all eigh who completed matched going out – Andy Roddick, James Blake, Sam Querrey, Vince Spadea, Michael Russell, Amer Delic, Robert Kendrick and Justin Gimelstob If Robby Ginepri’s match hadn’t been called for darkness, the exodus could have numbered nine.

And amidst the 82 matches scheduled on the first rain-free day of the tournament, there was plenty of less collective suffering too.

Most striking of all was former finalist Martin Verkerk. Pairing his glum demeanour today with the vivid facial expressions that marked his run here in 2003 would produce a perfect pair of quintessential tragi-comic theatre masks.

Off the circuit during 2005 and 2006, he entered the event this year with a protected ranking that will expire at the end of next week and leave him in the 700s. In between, he’s had two shoulder operations and a bout of mono that knocked him out for about nine months. The mental frustration of all the setbacks also took their toll. “It’s not like I went to the psycho house, but I was close to doing it,” he said.

Already a late bloomer, the 29-year-old now doesn’t have much time to mount a comeback. It’s quite a story, but Verkerk wasn’t about to tell it.

What did he spend his time off doing? “Basically nothing. Watching some television and bascially doing nothing. Very boring life.”

Does he think back on his finals appearance here? “I think that if you forget that you reached the finals of a Grand Slam then you are very stupid.”

Does he feel he’s back? “I’m back on court, but that’s basically it.”

How’s the shoulder? “Shoulder is okay, no pain. The speed is not that well yet, but maybe it will come. Or not.”

Somebody pass the Prozac.

Then there’s the strange case of Dmitry Tursunov, who seems to perfer ignoring his injuries. He started the year playing at the Australian Open despite a bum wrist that he knew wouldn’t allow him to complete more than a handful of matches. He won just four games in the third round against Tomas Berdych. Too injured to play, he then flew to Russia’s Davis Cup tie in Chile to take his spot on the team. Teammate Marat Safin later wondered aloud about why Tursunov had even turned up.

In Estoril earlier this month, Tursunov twisted his ankle just before the tournament began. On crutches with the ankle “the size of an apple,” it seemed certain that he wouldn’t be able to play.

Did he withdraw? Of course not. He played on until he lost in straight sets to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the second round.

Did he rest the following week? Of course not. He entered Rome, winning just three games against Fernando Gonzalez in the second round.

The penny finally dropped at Hamburg, where he retired in the first round down 6-2, 1-0 to Igor Andreev. The problem? Don’t stop the presses – an ankle injury. After that, he took some time off – all the way until last Thursday.

After winning his first-round match here, Tursunov said he still isn’t fully recovered. “The wrist is fine now, but the ankle has been bothering me.”

Is he insane? Well – probably, but there is a method to his madness. “I feel if you take time off, your body gets reset a little bit,” he said. “Then something goes wrong and then something else. A lot of injuries are a chain effect.”

No need to tell Nadia Petrova that. After defaulting in Rome with a back injury, she was struck down again against Kveta Peschke today. It’s the second year in a row she’s been hit by injury during her opening match at the French – last year, she came in as one of the favorites, got injured, and was off the tour until August.

Now Petrova waits for the results of an MRI scan to see how long she’ll be out for this time around.

“I wasn’t playing as well as last year on clay, but you know, you can always make a turn around,” she said. “So I was really hoping and really motivated, especially now I’m having such a period in my career that I don’t have to defend anything – I just have to go play free, and everything I do is just a bonus. Yeah, it’s very disappointing.”

Still, she did at least go through the motions and finish the match – something it’s been noted she doesn’t always do. “I think it wasn’t very wise of me to continue playing in that third set, so I just had to shake the hands and walk off.”

Christophe Rochus will commiserate after having to default here for the second time in a row – cramps in the first round this year, and a thigh injury in the second round last year.

Christophe’s brother Olivier should by all rights have had received a default – Gael Monfils took no less than four falls during their match today, including a severe tumble at 5-3 in the second set that left him wincing for several minutes. “I hurt myself and it was bad luck,” he said. “I hurt my hip. And in fact, I fell a second time and I cut my wrist a little bit.”

Monfils can be riveting to watch, a supremely athletic and flamboyant player who produces the most eye-catching photos. But you can call these episodes bad luck only for so long. In Madrid last fall, Monfils took a hotdog jump for a shot that was clearly out of reach and ended up having to go off court in a wheelchair after twisting his right ankle. And to make matters worse, it was the first tournament he had played since the US Open because of an injury to his left ankle.

But when it comes to retirements, nothing today could top this bizarre pair. Jan Hernych defaulted with a back problem after playing just nine points against Mikhail Youzhny – who, it turned out, had been having back problems of his on. At the other extreme was Alexandre Sidarenko, who retired down match point when he fell and twisted his ankle.