Daniil Medvedev still has issues with clay court tennis, but the world No.2 cantered into the French Open third round with a 6-3 6-4 6-3 win against Serbian Laslo Djere.
The Russian, who reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros last year after four consecutive first-round exits, struggled at times but his elasticity eventually made up for his lack of natural ability to move around on the slow surface.
He will next meet 28th seed Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia.
Medvedev, who won the US Open last year and was runner-up at the Australian Open this season, arrived at the French Open with only one match on clay under his belt after undergoing a procedure to treat a hernia in April.
Meanwhile, former world No.1 Simona Halep crashed out in the second round as she failed to find a way past the aggressive game of Chinese teenager Zheng Qinwen and fell to a 2-6 6-2 6-1 loss.
Halep, who lifted the trophy at Roland Garros in 2018 before winning Wimbledon the following year, came into the contest on Court Simonne Mathieu having won her only prior meeting against the 19-year-old Zheng in straight sets in Melbourne in January.
The 30-year-old Romanian got off to a flying start by dominating play from the baseline, breezing through the opening set and going up a break before Zheng, ranked 74th in the world took control.
Winners started flowing from the Chinese player's racket as the unforced errors count started soaring for Halep and Zheng did not look back from there on.
Zheng, who hit 28 winners to her opponent's nine, won eight games in a row to go up 3-0 in the deciding third set and Halep won just one more game in the match.
The Romanian also seemed to struggle with her breathing during the third set and had her pulse and blood pressure checked on court.
Reuters
