MIRJANA Lucic-Baroni has the kind of backstory which makes your eyes water.

The German-born Croatian, a one-time child prodigy who racked up two junior slams before her 14th birthday, lived with an abusive father until she managed to get away at the age of 16, and even quit tennis for four years due to numerous personal and financial problems.

Now, aged 33, healthy and happily married to an Italian restaurant owner, she merely seems to inflict a unique and entirely different kind of misery upon Simona Halep, the World No 3. The Romanian was the highest seed yet to depart Roland Garros yesterday when she went down 7-5, 6-1 to Lucic-Baroni, an outcome which shouldn't perhaps be regarded as such a shock following a similar result at least year's US Open.

While Halep, last year's beaten finalist here, departed the scene, Lucic-Baroni - playing despite a heavily strapped right shoulder - shed a tear of joy on the court and fairly wowed the hardened hacks in the press room afterwards. "I take a lot of pride in what I went through in my life, the difficulties," she said. "I know for a fact that a lot of people couldn't do it, what I went through and come back and fight the way I did.

"At the US Open it was the first time in a really long time that I've had a really good result like that," said Lucic-Baroni, who now faces home favourite Alize Cornet. "So I was extremely emotional. Now after seeing the video of my press conference from that day, I am trying to hold it together a bit."

Halep's departure was particularly good news for Maria Sharapova, the woman who beat her in the final here last year and, by the numbers at least, was scheduled to meet her in the semis. Sharapova sailed through her all-Russian second round tie against Vitalia Dialchenko by a 6-3, 6-1 scoreline, but other threats remain. She now faces Sam Stosur of Australia in the third round, but the likes of Lucie Safarova, Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro - whose opponent Virginie Razzano retired hurt - all progressed comfortably.

The big guns all rolled on in the men's side too, not least the Swiss big cheeses at the head of affairs. No 2 seed Roger Federer was subjected to a second set tie-break against Marcel Granollers of Spain on Philippe Chatrier before breezing through 6-2, 7-6 (1), 6-3, while his countryman Stan Wawrinka was too good for Dusan Lajovic in four. Kei Nishikori impressed during a straight sets dismissal of a decent clay courter in Thomaz Bellucci, Lukas Rosol and Benjamin Becker surprised Roberto Bautista Agut and Fernando Verdasco respectively, while Tomas Berdych got the better of a four-setter against his countryman Radek Stepanek.

This was also a good day for the French challenge. There was mass celebration from the Roland Garros crowd when Benoit Paire ended No 28 seed Fabio Fognini's interest in the competition, Gilles Simon and Nicolas Mahut progressed, and Gael Monfils nearly brought the house down in a typically dramatic five-set win against Argentina's Diego Schwartzman.

Also progressing yesterday, sadly for British supporters, was Australia's Nick Kyrgios, after Kyle Edmund withdrew due to an abdominal muscle injury. "Kyle felt something after his qualifying matches," said Leon Smith, the Glaswegian Great Britain Davis Cup captain. "And since the match against [Stephane] Robert it has got worse. The advice we had was that if he went on court for even a set, it could damage it further and put him out for six, seven, eight weeks. He played four fantastic matches here, and he will quite possibly be in the top 100 when the next rankings come out. Why risk ruining your summer?"