Being awarded a seeded position in a Grand Slam is generally the golden ticket for a tennis player, but 17th seed Ashleigh Barty might well be feeling the unluckiest around.
The Australian cruised past Natalia Vikhlyantseva into the second round of the French Open on Tuesday, only to find that her next opponent is tennis great and 23-times Grand Slam champion Serena Williams.
Unlucky draw: Ash Barty faces Serena Williams in the second round.
Photo: AP
Williams gave birth to daughter Alexis Olympia last September, and is making her Grand Slam return here in Paris.
As French organisers rigidly use WTA rankings to determine their seedings she is the most dangerous of floaters.
Barty, though, is attempting to put a brave face on it.
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"I mean, for me, you want to play the big names and you want to test yourself against the best, and I think any opportunity you can do that is good," she told reporters.
"But, obviously, deeper in the tournament you're both playing good tennis. You're in a spot where you deserve to be… sometimes it's how the cookie crumbles and that's how the draw is done, and we're playing each other in the second round."
Barty stood firmly on the fence on the issue of whether or not Serena should have been seeded.
"I think it's an extremely tough question," she said. "I think probably in certain ways, yes, and I agree with those arguments; and then also I agree with arguments where it's no.
"I think it's a tough decision. I know that the WTA are going through all the right processes.
"And I think there are valid arguments both ways. And I think, over time, whatever decision is made, I think the outcome will be right."
Former world number one Chris Evert grasped the nettle more firmly.
"It's wrong, they should protect players," Evert, who works as an analyst for broadcaster ESPN, told Reuters in an interview.
"Not just for her but for the other women who could play her in the first round. It's about protecting the field too.
"It's not like you decide to take a year off. I mean if you are forced out of the game for a specific reason, whether it be maternity or injury, you need to be protected.
"You don't have to put her back at number one because she left at number one but try to figure out some sort of happy medium where it's fair for all."
Fightback: Daria Gavrilova had enough to see off Sorana Cirstea.
Photo: PA
Earlier, Daria Gavrilova staged a tense fightback to Samantha Stosur in the second round.
Gavrilova, the women's 24th seed, battled back from a set and a service break down to defeat Romanian Sorana Cirstea 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 in a niggly encounter on Tuesday.
The world No.25 looked like suffering her third consecutive first-round defeat at Roland Garros before turning the match around after a 45-minute rain delay.
Trailing 2-0 in the second set and again fighting some mental demons, the 24-year-old pulled herself together to progress to a second-round meeting with American Bernarda Pera.
Stosur earlier powered into the second round for the 12th straight year with a 6-2 6-4 victory over former US Open semi-finalist Yanina Wickmayer.
Easy win: Sam Stosur cruised in straight sets.
Photo: AP
Unseeded for the first time in Paris for the first time in a decade, Stosur clubbed 21 winners, five aces and broke Wickmayer five times in another typically strong start to her 14th Open campaign.
The four-time semi-finalist and 2010 runner-up next plays either Polona Hercog or Romania or Russian 30th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
A third-round showdown with 2016 champion Garbine Muguruza looms large after the Spanish third seed also scored an impressive straight-sets victory on Tuesday – 7-6 (7-0) 6-2 over 2009 winner Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Victories for Barty, Stosur and Gavrilova finally restored some pride to Australian tennis following first-round defeats for Bernard Tomic, Jordan Thompson and Ajla Tomjlanovic.
John Millman, James Duckworth and Matt Ebden added to the Australian exodus on Tuesday.
Millman succumbed 7-5 6-4 6-2 to Canadian prodigy Denis Shapovalov after holding handy leads in the first two sets on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.
He blew a 5-2 advantage in the opening set, then a 3-1 buffer in the second.
Continuing his comeback from foot surgery, Duckworth put up a fight against third seed Marin Cilic on centre court before bowing out 6-3 7-5 7-6 (7-4) to the 2018 Australian Open finalist and 2017 Wimbledon runner-up.
Resuming his match that was suspended at two sets a piece on Monday night due to thunderstorms, Ebden eventually lost 6-4 5-7 6-2 3-6 6-2 to Italian Thomas Fabbiano.
AAP, Reuters
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