A fighting Simona Halep has denied Australia it’s best French Open start in nearly 30 years as Ajla Tomljanovic went down swinging in Paris.

Defending champion and third seed Halep felt the full force of Tomljanovic’s power in a 6-2 3-6 6-1 first round victory on Tuesday evening.

Her win stopped a seventh Australian from progressing to the second round at the clay court major, something that hadn’t been achieved since 1990.