Williams and Svitolina march on in Paris following straight sets victories in Roland Garros round 1

Serena Williams and Elina Svitolina reached the 2nd round of the Roland Garros following victories over Gracheva and Ahn.

Serena Williams returned to Paris on Monday to play her first-round matchup against Kristie Ahn. Ahn is a player Serena knows well and they last played not long ago at the US Open. It showed in the match as initially, Ahn surprised Serena with some of her play taking an early lead that peaked at 4-2 midway through the set. Serena fought back to tie it before we ended up in a tiebreak where Serena dominated winning it 7-2.

The 2nd set was utter domination by Serena as all tricks that Ahn prepared stopped working. An early break boosted Serena's confidence which grew with each passing game. Ultimately we ended up at 5-0 for Serena with 3 consecutive match points which Ahn saved. She saved a 4th as well but she could not save the 5th.

Elina Svitolina started her Roland Garros journey with a strong victory over the ever tricky Gracheva. It was an up and down affair for Svitolina who looked sharp early taking a 4-0 lead before Gracheva fought back to make it 4-4. A roller coaster followed with 4 consecutive games where the serving player lost her serve and we ended up in a tiebreak. In it, Svitolina calmed down and cruised to a 7-2 victory.

The 2nd wasn't a smooth ride either as it started with 3 consecutive broken serves. At the end of that Gracheva emerged with a 3-1 lead which she could not hold. Svitolina first tied it a 4-4 before breaking Gracheva once more to take a 5-4 lead. She would then go on to serve out the game and match-winning it with the result of 7-6(2) 6-4.