Cam Norrie hurled his racquet high into the Parisian sky to celebrate his epic win over Daniil Medvedev as British tennis threw recent French Open form into the dustbin of history.

Last year all six British singles players went out in the opening round of the claycourt Grand Slam.

This time world No.81 Norrie staged the most stunning of the half dozen wins by shocking the Russian world No.11.

Jack Draper, Jacob Fearnley, Katie Boutler, Emma Raducanu and Sonay Kartal also secured opening round wins - the most here since 1973. And it is the first time in the Open era that three British men and three British have all won first round matches here.

Draper said: "I think it's amazing for British tennis, to be honest. I think it's great and it shows that we're not afraid of playing well on the clay."

Norrie had lost his first four matches to Medvedev without winning a set but won this rollercoaster slugfest 7-5 6-3 4-6 1-6 7-5 before his big celebration.

"I don't actually remember what happened," he said. "It was just a nice release of energy. I threw it pretty accurately. Yeah, I was happy it stayed on the court! It was honestly a crazy match. It was a lot of fun.

"He's so tough to beat, I think I deserve a diploma for beating Medvedev. It was just pure emotion at the end and pure instinct. It was a good throw!'

The former Wimbledon semi-finalist and Indian Wells champion, who has slipped down the rankings after tearing a bicep last year, put the win in his " top three in terms of pure matchups".

And he took special pleasure in driving the former US Open winner to distraction. "He chops me every time," said Norrie. "It was quite nice in the first set to see him kind of a little bit freaking out and talking to his box and trying to look for answers and solutions."

Norrie, who recorded his first top-20 win for 16 months, now has a golden chance to equal his best run here when he faces Argentine lucky loser Federico Gomez in the second round.

US Open semi-finalist Draper won his first ever match here 3-6 6-1 6-1 6-2 after weathering a first-set storm from world No.68 Mattia Bellucci. His fellow left-hander even took his third set point with a cheeky underarm serve.

"I never understand with underarm serves why people boo and stuff," said the No.5 seed. "It's a good shot if you can play at the right time. He was almost playing some lights-out stuff.

"I'm really proud with the way I turned the game on its head, started to be more aggressive. It's not how you start, it's how you finish - and I finished pretty well."