Birthday girl Iga Świątek beat friend Kaja Juvan of Slovenia 6-0 7-5 to begin her French Open title defence on Monday.
Celebrating her 20th birthday, the Pole did not seem keen to spend too much time on court and came out all guns blazing from the start on a windy day in the opening match at Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Świątek dished out a bagel in the first set to Juvan, who is her friend from junior ranks, making it three consecutive sets that the Pole had not lost a game after she defeated former number one Karolina Pliskova 6-0 6-0 in the final in Rome.
With nothing to lose Juvan went on the offensive in the second set and after an early trade of breaks Świątek got the crucial break in the 12th game to set up a second-round clash against either Shelby Rogers or Rebecca Peterson.
"You never know what's going to happen and I never was a defending champion even in like the smallest tournaments, yeah, so I didn't know what to expect and I just tried to keep my routines and work as I was working for the whole season" - Iga Świątek said after the game.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters