After Novak Djokovic capped a surreal week at Roland Garros with a triumphant victory in the latest finish to a French Open match, the action early on Sunday was starkly different.

A string of long matches and a scheduling faux pas saw the Serbian superstar walk off Court Philippe Chatrier at 3.08am on Sunday.

Less than eight hours later his fellow world No. 1 Iga Swiatek walked onto the same court to begin the second week of the major and needed just 40 minutes to hand Anastasia Potapova a double-bagel – tennis slang for 6-0 6-0 – in a phenomenal display.

Carlos Alcaraz, Coco Gauff and Marketa Vondrousova were nearly as dominant, while Stefanos Tsitsipas rallied from a perilous position to keep his hopes alive.

The Australian focus is on Alex de Minaur on Monday night (AEST), with the No. 11 seed scheduled second on Court Suzanne Lenglen for a clash against Russian star Daniil Medvedev.

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PLAYERS RALLY TOGETHER TO CONDEMN AFTER DARK MADNESS IN PARIS

Three-time champion Novak Djokovic’s farcical late finish to his clash against Lorenzo Musetti had the players talking on Sunday and none of them were pleased.

Late night finishes have been the bane of tennis for some time, with the Australian Open among the worst offenders, despite introducing measures to minimise midnight madness.

Scheduling is a tricky business given tennis matches have no fixed length, but that did not stop the criticism that flowed following the Djokovic drama.

Dual-French Open finalist Casper Ruud pondered whether tennis was the toughest sport of all given the physical demands combined with the changes in surfaces and time zones.

The Norwegian, who plays Thanasi Kokkinakis’s late-night conqueror Taylor Fritz on Monday, was still receiving treatment to recover after his own match when Djokovic finished.

“Can tennis be considered one of the toughest sports in the world? What other sports make you play/compete/perform for four plus hours at 3am?” he wrote on social media.

“I just finished my match two hours ago. After that I have to cool down on the bike for 15 minutes, do press/media, ice bath for 10 minutes, shower/eat and then get treatment/massage.”

US Open champion Coco Gauff, who outclassed Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6-1 6-2 in a match lasting one hour after Swiatek’s 40-minute romp earlier, said it was unhealthy.

“People think finishing at 3am (means), ‘Oh. You are done,’” Gauff said.

“But you play till 3am, and then you have press, and then you have to shower, eat and then do treatment, so then you are not going to bed until five at the earliest, maybe six or even seven.

“It’s not healthy and maybe not fair for those who have to play late, because it does ruin your schedule. I haven’t been put in a super late finish yet.

“What can be done? I know on the tour side, they’re thinking about putting a (rule in where) matches can’t start after a certain time. I don’t know if it is going to be a Grand Slam rule.

“It is a complicated thing, but for the health and safety of the players, it would be in the sport’s best interest to avoid those matches starting after a certain time. Obviously, you can’t control when they finish.”

Carlos Alcaraz, who whipped Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-3 6-3 6-1, is not a fan of night matches and said it was not fair to Djokovic, the defending champion.

“We have to do a lot of really important things to recover for the next matches. It’s not only the last ball. We have a lot of important things to do,” he said.
“Novak, I’m sure he went to sleep at 6am, and the last point finished at 3am something like that. It’s really difficult to recover when you are going to go to sleep so late.

“For me it’s much better to finish at 6pm, having dinner really, really well at … a good restaurant (with) good food, so everything is better if you finish early. (But) the night session is a real thing, so we can’t change it.”

ALEX DE MINAUR NOT THE ONLY AUSSIE YOUNG GUN IN ACTION

The Aussie attention will not all be on Alex de Minaur on Monday as highly-talented Gold Coast teenager Emerson Jones begins her campaign in the girls singles tournament.

Jones, who reached the final of the Australian Open girls event in junior, has continued to impress in low-tier senior events and also peer-group tournaments around the world.

The 15-year-old has risen to a ranking of No. 2 and arrives at Roland Garros in excellent form after winning a significant junior tournament in Milan late last month.

The daughter of former Australian Olympian Loretta Harrop, Jones is the youngest player to win multiple J500 titles.

She is coached by David Taylor, who guided 2011 US Open champion and former Roland Garros finalist Sam Stosur and Alicia Molik to the top 10.

Jones begins her campaign in Paris against qualifier Daria Shadchneva. But she is not the only member of her family with legitimate Roland Garros hopes.

Her older brother Hayden, who is seeded No. 6, started well against Jan Klimas from the Czech Republic when progressing to the second round with a 6-4 4-6 6-2 victory.

Jones is playing doubles with Charlie Camus, who grew up in Canberra and won the junior male athlete award at the Newcombe Medal last year.

He has since opted to represent France, where his father Olivier was a national representative in hockey.

A BASEL BLASTER WITH A BRILLIANT BACKHAND?

Speaking of juniors, remember the name Henry Bernet.

The 17-year-old, who qualified for the boys’ singles and was an impressive 6-1 6-3 winner over third seed Nicolai Budkov Kjaer, was inspired by Roger Federer and possesses a lovely one-handed backhand.

But that is not the only similarity. Bernet also grew up in Basel and represented the TC Old Boys Basel, which is the club Federer played at as a junior.

Federer’s close friend Marco Chiudinelli, who peaked at No. 52, set his alarm clock early in Basel on Sunday to catch a train to Paris to watch the emerging talent in action.

“It is an honour for me to see them interested in my game. It is a motivation for me,” Bernet told foxsports.com.au

“I have been compared already with Roger, but it is like, ‘He is another world. He is playing at another level and I am very far away from it.’ But it keeps me motivated.

“I mean, what Roger and Stan (Wawrinka) achieved for the country Switzerland is not normal and it’s just an inspiration for us young people.”