By Chris Oddo | Thursday May 26, 2016
With two matches done and dusted in less than two hours, Serena Williams is comfortably into the third round in Paris and conserving energy nicely for the road that lies ahead.
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On Thursday Williams won her ninth consecutive Roland Garros match, making short work of Brazil’s Teliana Pereira, 6-2, 6-1.
“I’m really focused, and for me that’s what matters most,” said Williams after the match.
The American improves to 20-3 on the season and 56-11 lifetime at Roland Garros. She will face either Timea Babos or Kristina Mladenovic in the third round.
In other early action on Thursday, 14th-seeded Ana Ivanovic eased past Japan’s Kurumi Nara, 7-5, 6-1. The former champion could end up facing Williams in the round of 16 if the seeds hold.
Ivanovic, a semifinalist in Paris last year, connected on 35 winners on the day. “I knew I had to be aggressive and move well against her, also take time away from her, because she's great player,” she said. “She moves well, so I really tried to step in and look for my forehand. I was very pleased it worked well.”
8th-seeded Timea Bacsinszky was a winner over Eugenie Bouchard in the first match of the day on Court Philippe Chatrier. The Swiss, also a semifinalist at Roland Garros last year, improved to 2-0 vs. Bouchard with both wins coming in 2016.
Bouchard rallied from a big deficit in the second set, but a confident Bacsinszky found her way to the finish line to set up a third-round encounter with Timea Bacsinszky. “At 5-4 in the second set, 15-40 on my serve, I thought it could be complicated, but I believed in my abilities,” she said. “I know that I'm a fighter, and I knew that I would have found the solution. Even though I had lost the second set I would have found a solution in the third set.”
29th-seeded Daria Kasatkina also came through. The 19-year-old Russian defeated Virginie Razzano in three sets to reach the third round on her Roland Garros debut. She will face Kiki Bertens in the third round. Bertens has now won nine straight matches after her victory over Camila Giorgi on Thursday. She upset Angelique Kerber in the first round and was the champion at Nurnberg last week as a qualifier.
Karin Knapp (d. Sevastova), Yulia Putintseva (d. Petkovic), Dominika Cibulkova (d. Konjuh) and Carla Suarez Navarro (d. Wang) were also winners on Day 5.