By Blair Henley
Caroline Wozniacki’s appearance at the French Open was in question just days ago after she aggravated an ankle sprain sustained last month, but the third-seeded Dane showed no sign of injury in her 6-0, 6-3 win over Russia’s Alla Kedryavtseva on another hot, sunny spring day at Roland Garros Monday.
“It feels pretty good today, actually,” she said. “I’ve had good support in the [ankle] tape, so I was really happy about that.”
At 19, Wozniacki is the lone teenager ranked in the top 25, propelled by her appearance in the 2009 U.S. Open final and her rigorous match schedule. Since the start of the 2009 season, she has played more matches than anyone else on tour – 125.
Top-seeded Serena Williams, who has never lost in the first round of a Grand Slam, struggled in her first set against No. 76 Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland.
Williams had trouble with her string tension from the beginning of the match yelling, “I can’t hit!” and repeatedly looking down at her racket. After going up 4-3, she handed off two rackets to get restrung.
The match stayed on serve through the first set before Serena dominated the tiebreak 7-2. From there the American found her rhythm, winning the second set 6-2. Interestingly, she stayed with the offending racket even after the stringer brought restrung, presumably tighter, replacements down to the court in the second set.
The U.S. suffered its first major casualty with Melanie Oudin falling 7-5, 6-2 to veteran Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues.
“In the end, I think experience really took over,” she explained to Tennis Channel’s Corina Morariu. “This is definitely a learning year for me, and I’m just going to be looking forward to the grasscourt season coming up.”
At No. 37, Oudin is the third highest ranked American woman after Serena and Venus Williams, but she has struggled to duplicate her success after reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon and the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open last year.
2008 French Open champ, Ana Ivanovic, overcame a slow start to beat Kai-Chen Chang 6-3, 6-3. Fifth-seeded Elena Dementieva, No. 24 Lucie Safarova and No. 15 Francesca Schiavone also advanced.