PARIS — Grand Slam tennis, like so much in life, is an expectations game.
In normal circumstances, if Serena Williams had struggled in the first round here while finishing off an unseeded player who had never won a French Open match, there would have been alarm bells ringing all over Roland Garros.
But in light of Williams’s recent life changes and challenges, her straight-set but hardly straightforward 7-6 (4), 6-4 victory over Kristyna Pliskova on Tuesday was much more ray of sunshine than storm cloud.
She is, after all, unseeded herself.
“I feel like I’m on the right track,” said Williams, who is newly married and a new mother.