PARIS — In a new time slot, Serena Williams kept her return engagement with the second round of a Grand Slam once more.
Playing in the first dedicated night session in French Open history on Monday at Roland Garros, the seventh-seeded Williams defeated the 74th-ranked Irina-Camelia Begu 7-6(6), 6-2 in an hour and 42 minutes.
Williams, who first played the French Open in 1998, said she appreciated the novelty, even without any fans in attendance due to a citywide 9 p.m. curfew in Paris.
“In all my eons of playing here, there had never been a night session at Roland Garros,” Williams told the Tennis Channel’s Jon Wertheim in an on-court, post-match interview.