The start of 15 days of fun in the dirt got off to a winning but ultimately controversial start for the ATP stars as the French Open started with its reduced Sunday program.

With Roger Federer doing the honors of leading the way for the men’s draw once more on Court Philippe Chatrier, not to mention a startlingly bright pair of shorts for his Roland Garros ensemble, these were overshadowed at the end of the match.

The match itself was by and large a routine win for Federer. There were the occasional rusty-looking shots against Alejandro Falla, who famously gave Federer a tough time in the first round of Wimbledon back in 2010. The Colombian was never able to really trouble the Swiss on the clay in both of their previous meetings in Roland Garros, and despite some occasional dazzling passing shots, he had no real answer as Federer wound himself into the match, closing out a 6-3 6-3 6-4 win in ten minutes shy of two hours.

However, things turned a little darker as a selfie-seeking fan jumped onto the court and was actually at Federer’s side for some rather uncomfortable seconds before a security guard finally intervened, only to let him go!

After the match, Federer did not hold back on his feelings on the subject, having also felt uncomfortable during an earlier practice session where he was directly approached as well as being also subject to an on-court confrontation during the 2009 final.

“I'm not happy about it. Obviously not one second I'm happy about it,” he said. “It happened yesterday in the practice, too. Normally I only speak on behalf of myself, but in this situation I think I can speak on behalf of all the players, that that's where you do your job, that's where you want to feel safe.”

He continued,  “[Tournament Director] Gilbert Ysern already came and apologized to me, and we had a quick conversation. I just told him what I think needs to happen. I told him about yesterday, as well, which he didn't know about.

I'm sure they will take the necessary steps now, but this doesn't only mean for this tournament for this year. It means for all the tournaments we play all the years coming up. We need to make sure that it's safe out there and people don't just wander on the court like a free pass.”

The sticky start for the tournament did not end there, as Stan Wawrinka was less than impressed with a piece that had appeared on the official Roland Garros website, referring to his recent personal issues ahead of his opening round against Marsel Ilhan.

In this day of rapidly moving social media, the article was tweeted and re-tweeted by journalists covering the tournament and fans alike, and Wawrinka was certainly not pulling his own punches on the subject after his first-round win, calling it a “completely stupid article,” before commenting further.

“It's the official website of a Grand Slam, so I hope the guy who did that article is not a journalist. I also hope the guy who is supposed to check all the articles on the website is not working anymore for the tournament. Because for me, for a Grand Slam website, it should be an article about the tennis and that's it. I told the tournament that I wasn't really happy about it.”

It was not all doom and gloom for the men’s draw. Kei Nishikori looked in decent form as he overcame a flurry of defense by France’s Paul-Henri Mathieu to prevail 6-3 7-5 6-1. Also looking in fine form was home crowd favorite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who delighted the crowds with a commanding win over Sweden’s Christian Lindell, 6-1 6-2 6-2. Gael Monfils and Gilles Simon will be amongst some of Tsonga’s other compatriots to try their hand at joining him in the second round, when they play on Monday.

Last year’s semifinalist Ernests Gulbis, who stymied Federer in the fourth round last year, won just his third match of the year in straight sets, but he drew the ire of the French crowd by not pausing to sign autographs.

Only two seeds failed to make it past the first day, as Ivo Karlovic [25] was bettered by perennial crowd favourite Marcos Baghdatis, and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez [26] lost a gruelling five-setter to the USA’s Steve Johnson.

 The top half of the draw kicks into high gear on Monday with Andy Murray closing out the day’s action on Chatrier. Play starts at 11am CET.