French Open Day 2 matches to watch: Murray, Sharapova begin play

French Open 2015 Monday matches to watch: Day 2 at the French Open features Maria Sharapova's return to Chatrier and a generational battle featuring Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens. Play begins at 5 a.m. ET on ESPN2, with some coverage moving to NBC at noon.

Courtney Nguyen | May 24, 2015

French Open Day 2 matches to watch: Murray, Sharapova begin play /

PARIS – Day 2 at the French Open features Maria Sharapova's return to Chatrier and a generational battle featuring Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens. Play begins at 5 a.m. ET on ESPN2, with some coverage moving to NBC at noon. Full television and broadcast schedule can be found here. Full order of play here.

Maria Sharapova has a tough opener: The defending champion opens her campaign on Court Philippe Chatrier (third match) against one of the toughest unseeded players in No. 49 Kaia Kanepi. Don't let Kanepi's ranking fool you. The Estonian has made six Slam quarterfinals, twice at the French Open in 2008 and 2012. She hits a big ball and when her shots are clicking she can be virtually unplayable. The good news for Sharapova is she's only lost one set to Kanepi in four matches and Kanepi has won just one match on clay this year, beating Madison Keys in the first round of Madrid.

Opening Sunday at French Open dominated by Federer's scare with fan

Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens face off: Bad luck of the draw for both women to have to face off in the first round, but that's the risk of the draw for Stephens, who comes into the tournament unseeded and ranked No. 41. This is the first career meeting between the two but given their form you have to give Stephens the edge. The younger American is coming off a semifinal run last week in Strasbourg, while Venus has won two matches in two tournaments on clay. That said, Venus' two clay losses came two top notch players in Simona Halep and Victoria Azarenka. Her form may be better than her record indicates.

Andy Murray begins his tournament: The Brit opens against Facundo Arguello (fourth match, Chatrier).

A quick turnaround for Sam Stosur and Dominic Thiem: It's always a risk to play the week before a Slam. They each won titles on Saturday, with Thiem winning his first in Nice and Stosur winning her first red clay title in Strasbourg. But there's no time to celebrate. Stosur plays Madison Brengle (second match, Court 3) and Thiem plays newly anointed Brit Aljaz Bedene (second match, Court 5).

Frances Tiafoe makes his Grand Slam debut: The 17-year-old American wildcard plays No. 36 Martin Klizan (first match, Court 5).

Youth on deck: In addition to Tiafoe, a number of exciting youngsters are up on Monday. Borna Coric, 18, takes on Sam Querrey (third match, Court 6). Bernard Tomic, who lost to Luca Vanni in a third-set tiebreaker in Madrid, gets a rematch (second match, Court 7) and Donald Young faces Santiago Giraldo (third match, Court 8). On the women's side, keep an eye on Aleksandra Krunic vs. Yulia Putintseva (second match, Court 10) and Monica Puig vs. Sabine Lisicki (first match, Court 17). Those could get...emotional.

SNAPSHOTS FROM DAY 1

French Open Day 1

19-year-old American wildcard Louisa Chirico made her Grand Slam debut, losing to No. 9 Ekaterina Makarova 6-4, 6-2.

Simona Halep returned to Court Philippe Chatrier for the first time since last year's final, shook off nerves and beat Evgenya Rodina 7-5, 6-4.

No. 22 Philipp Kohlschreiber lost just three games, beating Go Soeda 6-1, 6-0, 6-2.

Roger Federer debuted some 80s style in a quick 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 win over Colombia's Alejandro Falla.

No. 5 seed Kei Nishikori topped French wildcard Paul Henri Matheiu 6–3, 7–5, 6–1.

Amelie Mauresmo and Andy Murray on court on another practice day. Murray opens his tournament on Monday.

Cleveland's Lauren Davis pushed Mirjana Lucic-Baroni to three sets, losing 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

A frustrated Mikhail Youzhny screamed, broke rackets and then retired after two sets to Damir Dzumher.

A first round loser last year, Stan Wawrinka put on a clinic to beat Marcel Ilhan 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.

After tumbling down to No. 165, 18-year-old Donna Vekic found her best form to upset No. 31 Caroline Garcia.

Published May 24, 2015

COURTNEY NGUYEN

Contributor, SI.com Nguyen is a freelance writer for SI.com, providing full coverage of professional tennis both on and off the court. Her content has become a must-read for fans and insiders to stay up-to-date with a sport that rarely rests. She has appeared on radio and TV talk shows all over the world and is one of the co-hosts of No Challenges Remaining, a weekly podcast available on iTunes. Nguyen graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 1999 and received a law degree from the University of California, Davis in 2002. She lives in the Bay Area.