Seven-time Grand Slam champion

Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams began another campaign for an elusive Roland Garros title with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

After struggling with her consistency and game plan in the second set, the American veteran stepped inside the court during the final set and took away her compatriot’s timing. While Mattek troubled Williams with hard counterpunching and occasional forays to the net, she is still not
experienced enough to keep up with Williams’s frequent change of tactics.

“I went for my shots. I made too many mistakes, so I lost,” Mattek said.

Williams reached the final in 2002 where she fell to her sister Serena, and has reached the quarterfinals four other times, but in recent years she has struggled with her footing and is unsure of the strategy she should employ. At the age of 28, she’s no longer able to dominate off the ground. Last year, she fell to a zoning Flavia Pennetta of Italy.

However, now ranked No3 and in an open quarter of the draw, Williams could do some serious damage once again.

“Clay, I know is the only Slam Venus hasn't won,” Mattek said. “I'm sure she's pretty bent on winning it. I think she was playing good. She clocked a couple of big serves. That's her strength.”

Top seed Dinara Safina, meanwhile, sent out a major statement that she is prepared to win her first Grand Slam title, destroying Britain’s Anne Keothavong 6 0, 6 0. Displaying no nerves and crushing the balls off both wings, Safina showed Keothavong no mercy, rarely making errors and coolly taking care of short balls.

“After I shook her hand she said at least you could give me one game,” said Safina, who reached the final last year. “I could imagine it's not nice to feel on the court, but I was just so into myself. I think I was playing with my head like into the match, so I didn't really focus [on that]. I just was playing point by point, game by game. If you start to play your game, it's tough to handle you.”

Coming into the tournament, the 23-year-old Safina has won consecutive WTA Premier titles at Rome and Madrid, successes that have made her the Roland Garros favourite. But in her two prior appearances in Slam finals – at Roland Garros 2008 and the 2009 Australian Open – she has come up well short, punched out by Ana Ivanovic and Serena Williams. She is trying not to focus on accolades that analysts are throwing her way.

“I'm not really paying attention what the people saying,” she said. “If I start to pay too much attention, you know – the most important thing I play my game and day by day, match by match, and how far I can get, God knows.”