Samantha Stosur has powered into the French Open second round for the 12th straight year to restore some pride to Australian tennis.

Stosur overcame a two-hour rain delay and some big hitting from former US Open semi-finalist Yanina Wickmayer to see off the Belgian 6-2 6-4 in another strong start to her 14th Roland Garros campaign.

The four-time semi-finalist and 2010 runner-up clubbed 21 winners, five aces and broke Wickmayer five times to earn a second-round date with either Polona Hercog or Romania or Russian 30th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

A third-round showdown with 2016 champion Garbine Muguruza looms large after the Spanish third seed also scored an impressive straight-sets victory on Tuesday – 7-6 (7-0) 6-2 over 2009 winner Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Unseeded for the first time in Paris for the first time in a decade, Stosur is Australia’s first player through to the second round this year.

While the veteran clay-courter advanced without much fuss, John Millman and James Duckworth added to the Australian exodus with straight-set defeats.

Millman succumbed 7-5 6-4 6-2 to Canadian prodigy Denis Shapovalov after holding handy leads in the first two sets on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.

He blew a 5-2 advantage in the opening set, then a 3-1 buffer in the second.

Continuing his comeback from foot surgery, Duckworth put up a fight against third seed Marin Cilic on centre court before bowing out 6-3 7-5 7-6 (7-4) to the 2018 Australian Open finalist and 2017 Wimbledon runner-up.

Millman and Duckworth follow Bernard Tomic, Jordan Thompson and Ajla Tomjlanovic out the exit gates.

Nick Kyrgios didn’t even start after withdrawing with an elbow injury on the eve of his much-anticipated first-time showdown with Tomic.

Daria Gavrilova and Matt Ebden are all locked in other tight contests on day three, while while Ashleigh Barty and wildcards Alex de Minaur and Isabelle Wallace play later.