World number two Serena Williams avoided an embarrassing first round defeat by beating Czech player Klara Zakopalova 6-3, 6-7, 6-4 at a weather-challenged Roland Garros on Tuesday.
The American was serving for the match on the second set but squandered a total of five match points to give Zakopalova the opportunity to push the battle into the third set.
Three more match points were saved by Zakopalova iwhile down 2-5 in the third set then broke Williams serve to reach 4-5. This time, however, the Czech’s heroic run ended with the 10-time Grand Slam champion breaking her serve to close out the match 6-4.
“I think Serena will be playing better and better each round, so it was the best chance to at least play with her or beat her. She’s Serena,” Zakopalova said after the match. The 100th-ranked player ousted Williams in the first round at a claycourt event in Marbella, Spain last month.
Williams, who completed the “Serena Slam” when she won the Roland Garros in 2002, has reached the finals of her last three Grand Slam appearances, losing the 2008 Wimbledon final to big sister Venus then winning the 2008 US Open and 2009 Australian Open.
Other seeded players progressing to the second round are third-seed Jelena Jankovic, fourth-seed Elena Dementieva, seventh-seed Svetlana Kuznetsova and tenth-seed Caroline Wozniacki.
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