French Open: Serena survives scare in first round

Serena Williams recovered from a stuttering start to defeat Vitalia Diatchenko and book her place in the second round of the French Open.

An upset looked on the cards when Russian Diatchenko, ranked 83rd, took the first set but Williams lost just one game thereafter in a 2-6 6-1 6-0 victory on Monday.

Williams arrived in Paris having played just four tournaments this year, withdrawing from all of them except the Australian Open, where she lost from 5-1 up in the deciding set of her quarterfinal against Karolina Pliskova.

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Latterly Williams has been troubled by a left knee problem, and a picture of her sitting in a wheelchair last week when she took her daughter to Disneyland added to concerns about her fitness.

Twelve months after making her Grand Slam return in a catsuit that was eventually banned, Williams wore a striking two-piece outfit, but the less said about her tennis in the first set, the better.

Never count her out.@serenawilliams makes her way into the second round with a 2-6 6-1 6-0 win over Diatchenko.#RG19 pic.twitter.com/gcxuQ5S4Pw

— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 27, 2019

Given her paucity of matches – this was Diatchenko’s 38th match of the season and Williams’ 10th – it was not surprising that the 37-year-old appeared horribly rusty.

A slew of errors allowed 28-year-old Diatchenko, whose calendar this year has included events in Shrewsbury and Bolton, to take the opening set comfortably.

Williams was a picture of frustration, screaming at herself and looking ever more agonised with each miss.

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But the American’s only first-round loss at a Grand Slam came here seven years ago and she set about making sure there would not be a repeat.

“It wasn’t easy today. I made many errors,” Williams said in an on-court interview.

Williams has shown many times that her form going into a Grand Slam has little relevance to what she can achieve once there and, by the end of the 90-minute contest, she was looking much more like the player who has dominated the sport for two decades.

Another day, another upset!

Veronika Kudermetova fights back to topple Wozniacki 0-6 6-3 6-3.#RG19 pic.twitter.com/zvqNgUn5YJ

— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 27, 2019

Dane Caroline Wozniacki joined Venus Williams, Angelique Kerber and Petra Kvitova on the sidelines after being knocked out in round one.

The 13th seed suffered a spectacular collapse in a 0-6 6-3 6-3 defeat to Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Court Philippe Chatrier on Monday, just 24 hours after Kerber and Williams were also sent packing.

But fancied fourth seed Kiki Bertens beat French Pauline Parmentier 6-3 6-4, with eighth seed Ashleigh Barty, number 12 Anastasija Sevastova of Belarus and 26th-seeded Rome finalist Johanna Konta also going through.

Wozniacki, a former world No.1, has failed to win a match on red clay this year as she was forced to retire with back and calf injuries midway through her opening round contests in Madrid and Rome.

“I think I played really well in the first set. I played aggressive. I played the way I wanted to play. And then I think she got very lucky in the start of the second set and … took advantage of the opportunities she got,” said Wozniacki.

“And then I just lost a little steam in the end and I made some unforced errors that I normally don’t do, so that was very frustrating.”

Bertens broke Parmentier once in each set and wrapped up matters with her 20th winner, a backhand longline passing shot.

The Dutchwoman won the recent Madrid Masters without dropping a set and also has semifinal berths from Stuttgart and Rome, which makes her a top contender for the title on June 8 – a role she is not really enjoying.

“I know it’s going to be a really, really tough way for the title here. I take it match by match. And then we see whatever happens here,” she said.

“I know that I can do it, but I also know that I can lose in the next round.”

Czech contender Petra Kvitova, the two-time Wimbledon champion, meanwhile withdrew ahead of her opening match, stating a tear in her left forearm.

“When I started to practise at Roland Garros, I started to feel a little bit my forearm, but yesterday when I hit it was much worse, and suddenly I felt the pain. Immediately I had to stop my practice,” she told a news conference.