French Open 2018: Serena Williams through to 3rd round after recovering 1st set loss

AP | Serena Williams looked more like her old self after a shaky start.

After playing so infrequently, it’s as if Williams is starting from scratch.

Shaking off some rust in her first Grand Slam tournament since giving birth 9 months ago, Williams recalibrated her shots and erased a deficit of a set and a break to beat 17th-seeded Ashleigh Barty of Australia 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a match that ended shortly before dusk.

“I lost the first set, and I thought, ‘I’ve got to try harder. I’ve got to just try harder,’ she told the crowd afterward. “And Serena came out.”

“When push came to shove, the real Serena came out. And that’s one of her best assets: When her back is against the wall, the best comes out,” Barty said.

Next for Williams is a third-round match against 11th-seeded Julia Goerges of Germany.

Williams is ranked only 451st this week, because of her extended absence from the tour. Get through that, and Williams would face either Maria Sharapova or 2016 U.S. Open runner-up Karolina Pliskova. Williams beat Pliskova’s twin sister, Kristyna, in the first round.