Ajla Tomljanovic has made a winning start to her Roland Garros campaign.
The world No.76 moved into the second round with a 6-2 6-4 victory against Ukrainian Kateryna Kozlova in Paris today.
It was a confident performance from Tomljanovic, whose controlled aggression helped her race to a 5-0 lead in the opening set and immediately heap the pressure on her No.159-ranked opponent.
The second set was tighter, but Tomljanovic showed her fighting spirit to close out victory in 101 minutes.
"I'm really happy to get through. I don't think it was the prettiest match, but I toughed it out," Tomljanovic said.
Tomljanovic's first-round victory snaps a five-match losing streak in Paris, which stretches back to a second-round loss in 2015. With all of those losses against top-20 seeded opponents, the 28-year-old made the most of a kinder draw this year, firing 17 winners to outplay Kozlova.
Thrilled to progress to the second round, Tomljanovic wants to keep building on her form.
"Every first round at a Slam for me is always a little bit nerve-racking, just because I want it so much," she admitted.
The No.2-ranked Australian woman has now won 10 of her past 15 matches on clay and will enter a second-round clash against No.31-seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova with growing self-belief.
"Every Slam all I want to do is get as many wins as possible," Tomljanovic said. "It's the four tournaments a year where we as players, we want to play our absolute best."
Tomjlanovic is the only Australian in action on day one in Paris. Nine more Aussies - three women and six men - will play their first-round singles matches over the following two days.
> READ: Aussie women primed for Roland Garros
Aussies in action - Roland Garros
RESULTS
Women's singles, first round
Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS) d Kateryna Kozlova (UKR) 6-2 6-4
COMING UP
Women's singles, first round
[1] Ash Barty (AUS) v Bernarda Pera (USA)
[WC] Astra Sharma (AUS) v [Q] Irina Bara (ROU)
[Q] Storm Sanders (AUS) v [14] Elise Mertens (BEL)
Women's singles, second round
Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS) v [31] Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)
> VIEW: Full Roland Garros women's singles draw
Men's singles, first round
[21] Alex de Minaur (AUS) v Stefano Travaglia (ITA)
John Millman (AUS) v Gianluca Mager (ITA)
Alexei Popyrin (AUS) v [3] Rafael Nadal (ESP)
Jordan Thompson (AUS) v Jaume Munar (ESP)
James Duckworth (AUS) v Salvatore Caruso (ITA)
[WC] Chris O'Connell (AUS) v Tommy Paul (USA)
> VIEW: Full Roland Garros men's singles draw
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