By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday May 19, 2021
A win—and a milestone—for Russia’s Elena Vesnina. The 34-year-old, playing her first Grand Slam since she left to tour to become a new mother in 2018, earned a 6-1, 6-0 victory in :58 over Olga Govortsova on Sunday.
The Russian, who will also take part in the doubles draw alongside Veronika Kudermetova, said she’s thrilled to have that winning feeling again.
“It's really a big moment for me,” said the former World No.13 in singles and World No.1 in doubles. “I really felt inspired today on the court. I felt great. I was not putting any pressure on myself, first of all. Of course I was nervous because I was practicing, I was working hard on the court, and I played here three years ago, and it's a Grand Slam. It's always pressure, it's always nerves.
Vesnina lost her first singles match of her comeback at Madrid, but said she slipped into the zone today against Govortsova.
“It was tough at the beginning especially, but then when the score was going, I was in a zone that I really wanted to keep that zone. It worked well for me, and I'm really pleased and happy the way I played. But it's a special win for me.”
The Russian will square off with Petra Kvitova in second-round action in Paris. She is 0-2 lifetime against the two-time Roland-Garros semifinalist, but looks forward to seeing her good friend again, no matter what happens when they meet.
Vesnina says she plans to continue playing singles and doubles for the rest of the season. She believes that she can be effective, even if she has a way to go in terms of fitness and match toughness.
“Of course right now I'm not 17, 18 years old girl,” she said. “I know that it's really hard for the body to recover when you have a tough match in singles and then you have to play doubles.
“The most important thing is on the next morning, how you're going to feel the next morning. Right now I want to try, I want to give a try definitely. I feel like I can do that. It all depends on the body, like I said before, how I will recover, because if you're playing many, many matches, then you will see, maybe you will need to stop doubles or you will need to see what is going to work better for you, but right now I want to try singles and doubles, especially this is the Olympic year, so I want to try to play—I will play mixed doubles here even.”