Long road to French Open glory May 22, PARIS (AFP) – Almost three weeks before the world’s best fight it out for the French Open titles, hundreds of players, including grizzled veterans and teenage hopefuls, have descended on Roland Garros for qualifying.

The men’s opening round got underway on Monday, despite the tournament proper not due to start until Sunday, with 128 entrants playing for only 16 spots in the main draw.

On Tuesday, 96 women will start their bids for just 12 places, with the potential rewards life-changing.

While former Grand Slam surprise packages Denis Istomin and Dustin Brown were going toe-to-toe in front of a smattering of spectators on Court 7, 23-time major champion Serena Williams was practicing on the Philippe Chatrier show-court.

Just two years ago, Istomin stunned Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open second round, but on the Parisian clay he fell to Brown – the camper-van driving, shock Wimbledon conqueror of Rafael Nadal in 2015.

Serbian Viktor Troicki was ranked 12th in the world only eight years ago and has reached the second week at Roland Garros three times, but found himself having to battle past 267th-ranked German Kevin Krawietz out on Court 9.

The 33-year-old is a lowly 256th in the rankings himself after a severe loss of form and fresh injury problems.

‘’Last time I was coming back I basically didn’t have a ranking and came back to the top 100 really fast — in three months — but it’s much tougher coming back from an injury when I’m a bit older now and my body is responding differently,’’ Troicki told rolandgarros.com.

Some players just cannot seem to get enough of the sport despite appearing to have little hope of ever returning to its upper echelons.

The 37-year-old Tommy Robredo, a five-time French Open quarterfinalist who has accrued over $13 million in career prize money, saw his hopes of qualifying ended for another year with defeat by Germany’s Rudolf Molleker – 19 years his junior.