Sixth seed Serena Williams has battled sluggish conditions to defeat fellow American Kristie Ahn 7-6(2) 6-0 to begin her French Open campaign.
Playing an opponent she beat in straight sets at the same stage at the US Open less than a month ago, Williams found herself struggling to win points on Court Philippe Chatrier, where the roof was opened just before the match.
Williams started with three aces to win her opening game, but the 102nd-ranked Ahn started moving better and chased down her opponent's heavy groundstrokes, which would have ended up as winners on most surfaces.
Ahn, making her main-draw debut at Roland Garros, went up 3-1 and served for the set at 5-4, but the 39-year-old Williams rallied each time to force a tiebreaker.
Williams, who has won three of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles at Roland Garros, raised her level in the tiebreaker and did not look back, handing the hapless Ahn a bagel in the second set.
"The biggest difference was just confidence," Williams says. "I just need to play with more confidence, like I'm Serena, so that was it.
"I just started playing like that, opening the court, and moving and sliding. I do think her level dropped a little bit in the beginning of the second set and I took advantage of that."
Bidding to match Margaret Court's record 24 Grand Slam titles, the American hit her 11th ace on her fifth matchpoint to seal the victory in 1h 41m.
Williams had 28 of her 36 unforced errors in the opening set, while she hit 26 winners in all.
Next up for the American will be a second-round meeting against fellow mother Tsvetana Pironkova, who earlier beat Andrea Petkovic 6-3 6-3.
"She's playing well, but I am too," Williams says of her next opponent. "I'm ready to play her, she'll be ready to play me.
"It will be a long match - she will get a lot of balls back. but so will I. I'll be ready."
Williams and Pironkova met in the quarter-finals of the US Open this month, when the Bulgarian went down in three sets.
"It's always exciting to face her, especially after our last match," says Pironkova. "We played three sets, it was very exciting match, so we'll see.
"I'm definitely very excited."
No player in the French Open women's draw has more claycourt wins than Kiki Bertens since the start of 2016 and the Dutchwoman needed all her expertise on the surface to avoid a first-round exit.
The fifth seed looked understandably rusty, as she took on debutant Katarina Zavatska, losing the first set, before hitting back to win 2-6 6-2 6-0.
Bertens was playing only her third match since February, after opting against travelling to the US Open and retiring injured with an Achilles tendon strain in Strasbourg last week.
But she gradually got up to speed against the 20-year-old Zavatska, after being outplayed in the first set, where she saved seven set points.
Bertens, a 2016 semi-finalist here, cut out the errors in the second set and polished off the third in 31 minutes, although her opponent was not helped by breaking three racket strings in the space of two games, midway through the decider.
The draw will not get any easier for red-dirt specialist Bertens, who faces former runner-up Sara Errani in the next round, after the Italian qualifier thrashed Olympic champion Monica Puig in her first Grand Slam match for two years.
Errani reached the final in 2012, but tested positive for a banned substance in 2017, claiming her mother's cancer medication had got mixed up with a bowl of pasta.
In 2018, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) increased her suspension by 10 months.
"It's going to be a really tough match," Bertens says. "I think I have to be ready to play a really long match, long rallies. I have to be patient."
Chasing her maiden Grand Slam title, Strasbourg champion Elina Svitolina extended her brilliant run on clay, with a 7-6(2) 6-4 victory over Russian Varvara Gracheva.
American Madison Keys, who reached the French Open semi-finals two years ago, suffered a shock 6-3 7-6(2) defeat by China's Zhang Shuai.
Bulgarian wildcard Tsvetana Pironkova, who reached the US Open quarter-finals in her first tour-level appearance since 2017, breezed into the second round in Paris, with a 6-3 6-3 victory over Germany's Andrea Petkovic.
Czech seventh seed Petra Kvitova advanced to the second round with a 6-3 7-5 victory over local favourite Oceane Dodin, firing eight aces and 30 winners, while winning 86 percent of her first serve points.
Playing in her maiden French Open, Canadian teenager Leylah Fernandez rallied from a set down to beat Poland's 31st seeded Magda Linette 1-6 6-2 6-3.
Germany's Angelique Kerber, who has won the other three Grand Slams, was once again well below par in Paris as she committed 30 unforced errors in a 6-3 6-3 defeat by Slovenia's Kaja Juvan, her fourth first-round exit in the last five years.
Former champion Garbine Muguruza was pushed the distance by Tamara Zidansek before coming out on top in their first round encounter with a 7-5 4-6 8-6 victory on court Simonne Mathieu.
Muguruza had fewer winners and more unforced errors but her extra break proved decisive after three gruelling hours.
Reuters.
