Simona Halep required only 45 minutes on the court to defeat Japan’s Nao Hibino 6-2, 6-0.
The world No.6 won 52 out of the 74 points played in her dominating victory. It is the third time this season that Halep has won a match on the clay by dropping two or less games. The Romanian has recently won the Madrid Open, raising the odds of her winning the French Open.
The impressive win will set Halep up with a second round meeting against either Zarina Diyas or Carina Witthoft.
Sloane Stephens booked her place in the second round of the French Open by defeating Margarita Gasparyan 6-4, 6-3. Seeded 19th in the draw, Stephens enters Roland Garros in the hope of a good run after suffering disappointing losses in Madrid and Strasbourg. The American demonstrated how much of a talent she is by producing 32 winners during her first round match.
“I felt good. I thought I played well, considering the conditions and that it is the first round of a slam. Also, it was raining all day and yesterday.” Stephens said after her win.
In the last 64 Stephens will play Paraguay’s Verónica Cepede Royg, who crushed Sabine Lisicki 6-2, 6-2. Royg was substantially aided in the match by 34 unforced errors from her opponent. The Paraguayan world No.161 has achieved her best results on the clay. 12 out of her 13 ITF titles have been on the surface.
Naomi Osaka became the first player this year to knock a seeded player out of the women’s draw in her French Open debut. The 18-year-old defeated Jelena Ostapenko (32) 7-5, 6-4. Last month Osaka achieved a ranking best of 94th in the world.
“She’s a really good player and I knew that going into the match.” Osaka said about about Ostapenko.
“I also knew that people probably wouldn’t expect me to win out of both of us, so I didn’t really have that much pressure.”
Mirjana Lučić-Baroni will be awaiting Osaka in the second round. The Croat, who made her debut at Roland Garros in 1999, eased past Daniella Hantuchová 6-1, 6-2.
Cagla Buyukakcay has become the first Turkish woman in the open era to win a grand slam main draw match after she defeated Aliaksandra Sasnovich 5-7, 7-6(2), 6-2. The 26-year-old will play Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round.
Finally, Svetlana Kuznetsova survived a three-set match against Yaroslava Shvedova. The 13th seed recovered from a set down to win 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.
