By Erik Gudris | Sunday, May 25, 2014

 

Admitting to some opening round nerves, defending champion Serena Williams polished off a straight sets win versus Alize Lim at the French Open.

Photo Credit: Peter Staples

Even the very best get nervous on the biggest stages. Just ask World No. 1 Serena Williams.

French Open: Venus Enjoys Opening Round Win

Though entering as the top seed and defending champion at this year's French Open, Williams found herself trying to overcome some pre-match jitters in her opening round on Sunday. Adding to the tension just a bit was her opponent across the net in young Frenchwoman Alize Lim who sometimes trains with Williams in Paris.

Williams needed several games to reign in her groundstrokes that often went sailing over the baseline. Despite going up an early break, Williams found herself saving two break points against her midway through the first set.

With back-to-back return winners, Williams eventually wrapped it up 6-2.

As the French crowd urged on Lim to make more of a match, she responded with several winners. But unable to put together much resistance, Lim soon found herself staring down a 1-5 deficit in the second set.

Williams struggled to serve out the last game that took over 10 minutes and saw several match points go begging. On her fifth match point, Williams closed out the 6-2, 6-1 win.

The stats tell most of the story with Williams striking 37 winners but also 36 unforced errors.

Afterwards, both players enjoyed an on-court interview conducted in French that had both laughing.

"I think in general for me I'm always, always have a little bit of nerves and just I try to harness them and put it in the right place," Williams said about her opening day. "So I think it's nice to have a little bit of that, because it means that you still have a passion for it. You still have this inside feeling that you want to do really well or else the nerves wouldn't be there."

When asked about how she keeps competing against players, often much younger than herself, Williams said it just motivates to keep going.

"I feel like people just don't want to stop now. I think honestly, I feel like when I was growing up I felt like, okay, I'm going to have to retire long before 30, because it was just what everyone did," Williams said. "And when I got close to be 30, I felt like I didn't want to stop. I just wanted to keep going. I think maybe just people are just more or less feeling that way."

Williams kept busy prior to start of Roland Garros by taking part in her friend Kim Kardashian's wedding to music star Kanye West over the weekend.

"I went to the dinner in Versailles and stuff, dinner and stuff," Williams confirmed. "Always fun with Kim."

Next up for Williams is another talented rising player in Spain's Garbine Muguruza.

Earlier, No. 3 seed Agnieszka Radwanska defeated Zhang Shuai 6-3, 6-0. Romania's Monica Niculescu pulled off the first upset by taking out No. 25 seed Kaia Kanepi 5-7, 6-3, 6-1.