PARIS: Serena Williams buried the ghosts of her 2012 Roland Garros horror show to storm into the French Open second round yesterday as Roger Federer enjoyed an untroubled start to his 54th consecutive Grand Slam.
The 31-year-old Williams, bidding for a 16th Grand Slam title, suffered her worst defeat at a major in Paris 12 months ago when she was dumped out of the first round by Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano.
But yesterday, Williams extended her current winning streak to 25, the best of her career, with a 6-0, 6-1 demolition of Georgia’s Anna Tatishvili, the world number 80.
It took Williams just 51 minutes to complete victory on a chilly Court Philippe Chatrier, where the temperature hovered just above the 10-degree mark, firing 27 aces to her opponent’s four. Williams, who won over the usual hard-faced Paris crowd by delivering an on-court television interview in French, admitted that the French Open is a tournament which has caused her the most problems.
“It hasn’t been working out for me. I just think I may have gotten nervous in the past or may have basically choked a few matches away,” she said.
“Some matches I just lost because maybe I wasn’t intense enough or maybe I didn’t do enough work before I got here to the tournament.”
Williams next faces France’s Caroline Garcia who, as a raw 17-year-old, was a set up and 4-1 to the good against Maria Sharapova in 2011 before slipping to defeat.
Federer, the 2009 champion here at Roland Garros, and hunting an 18th major, saw off Spanish qualifier Pablo Carreno-Busta, the world number 166, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3.
The 21-year-old Spaniard had started the year at 654 before winning seven Futures events and claiming an astonishing record of 53 wins in 57 matches on the circuit’s third tier.
But Federer, playing in his 15th Roland Garros, was too strong, building the foundation for victory with a break in the opening game of all three sets.
The Swiss star, who bitterly attacked organisers for forcing him to play on a Sunday when the tournament extended its programme in 2006, said he was now happy to have the extra day’s rest that the early start affords.
“I didn’t agree with how things went. Wimbledon does it in 13 days and the French does it in 15,” said 31-year-old Federer after firing 33 winners and 10 aces past Carreno-Busta to achieve his 55th career victory at Roland Garros.
Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer also cruised through with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 win over Australia’s Marinko Matosevic whose Grand Slam record now reads nine matches played, nine matches lost.
Lleyton Hewitt, like Federer a former world number oneput in a trademark gut-busting performance before losing a five-set thriller to French 15th seed Gilles Simon.
Elsewhere, Venus Williams of the US crashed out after losing 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 against Poland’s Urszula Radwanska. AFP
