Naomi Osaka began her Roland Garros campaign with a 6-1 4-6 7-5 victory over Lucia Bronzetti.
The multiple-time Grand Slam champion was making her first appearance at Roland Garros since 2022 and was bidding to secure her eighth victory of her career at the event.
It was a fast start from the world number 134 who broke twice in the opening set on her way to a 6-1 set.
There was accurate and aggressive counter-attacking tennis from Osaka who took advantage of some cheap unforced errors from Bronzetti.
In the second set, there was more stable and convincing serving from the Italian as Osaka had minimal opportunities to secure the break.
A big opportunity did present itself to Osaka in the seventh game as she found the angles to force errors from Bronzetti, creating two break points.
That big opportunity was wasted as Bronzetti continued to extend the rallies and tested Osaka’s stamina.
The move paid off for Bronzetti as she broke in the tenth game, taking advantage of some inconsistent serving from Osaka with the Italian converting her second set point.
In the final set it looked like Osaka was going to run away with the match as she secured an early double break lead as she went 4-0 ahead.
But once again Osaka took her foot off the gas with Bronzetti gaining the two breaks back and winning four games on the bounce.
Too many tactical errors nearly cost Osaka but the former Australian Open and US Open champion managed to notch up her first Grand Slam win for two years by claiming the last two games.
Now Osaka could face world number one and defending champion Iga Swiatek in the second round should the Pole get past Leolia Jeanjean.
So far on day one Dayana Yastremska came from a set down to defeat Ajla Tomljanovic 3-6 6-3 6-3 while Marie Bouzkova knocked out 29th seed Veronika Kudermetova 6-2 6-4.
