French Open: Serena Williams back on clay, Maria Sharapova wins thriller

Serena Williams made her long-awaited return to clay-court tennis on Tuesday with a 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 victory over Kristyna Pliskova at the French Open.

The opening-round clash at Roland Garros was Williams’ first on the surface since 2016 and her first outing at a grand slam since winning the 2017 Australian Open, having taken time away to have a baby.

And despite appearing rusty early on, the 23-time major champion did enough to ensure safe passage to a second-round meeting with Australia’s Ashleigh Barty.

The progress of Maria Sharapova was not so straightforward, as she needed three sets to get past Richel Hogenkamp, while Garbine Muguruza was a straight-sets victor over Svetlana Kuznetsova.

SERENA BACK ON CLAY

“I think the match went well,” Williams said of her performance. “It wasn’t an easy match because the beginning was so many aces and I knew that after her first game of serving, I’d have to serve really well today.

“I need to really be on my game serving-wise, because there’s not going to be a tremendous amount of rallies.

“So, yeah, I was struggling to get in a little rhythm because it was so much acing, so many aces going on.

“But overall, I was definitely happy with my performance and how I played today. Two years has been a really long time but I trained really hard on the clay and I feel good.”