May 30, 2018 3 min read

Top-ranked Simona Halep overcame some opening-match nerves to advance to the second round of the French Open Wednesday, beating Alison Riske of McMurray, 2-6, 6-1, 6-1.

Halep took a bathroom break after Riske jumped out to a 5-0 lead and won the opening set, and looked like a new player when she came back on court. The Romanian unwrapped a new racket and attacked Riske’s serve with renewed vigor and aggression, breaking her to love in the second set’s first game.

After making 16 unforced errors and winning less than half the points on her serve in the first set, Halep completely reversed the momentum of the match, rediscovering her range and accuracy on the clay of Court Philippe-Chatrier.

Riske, meanwhile, wilted and won only 22 points in losing the second and third sets.

“It’s always tough to start the tournament,” said Halep, a finalist at Roland Garros last year and in 2014.

The match, the last in the first round of the women’s draw, was postponed Tuesday before storms drenched Roland Garros.

“She (Riske) played really well in the first set and I knew I just had to start getting some balls in and be more aggressive,” Halep said.

Halep’s next opponent, 72nd-ranked Taylor Townsend of the United States, played her first-round match Tuesday.

“I’ll be ready,” Halep said. “We just have to adapt.”

Halep needs to reach the semifinals or better this year to have a chance of holding onto her No. 1 ranking after the French Open.

Riske has taken a set from Halep before, and she reached the final of the clay-court event in Nuremberg, Germany, last week.

Novak Djokovic was reflective and revealing after moving into the third round by virtue of a self-described up-and-down performance in a 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-4 victory over 155th-ranked Jaume Antoni Munar Clar of Spain. Both of Djokovic’s matches so far have been against qualifiers; neither win was particularly impressive.

“At the moment, I’m not playing at the level I wish to, but at the same time, I understand that it is the process that obviously takes time,” said Djokovic, whose seeding of No. 20 is his lowest at a Slam in 12 years. “And I’m trying to not give up.”

At least he got through in straight sets, saving energy for whatever might come next at Roland Garros. Other leading men were forced to work a lot harder in matches they would have been expected to breeze through: No. 2-seeded Alexander Zverev, No. 4 Grigor Dimitrov and No. 19 Kei Nishikori all faced two-sets-to-one deficits and all emerged to win Wednesday.

Zverev was down by a set and a break early – and down a racket he’d obliterated by then, too – before collecting himself and coming back to beat 60th-ranked Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 2-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. Dimitrov was two points from defeat against 21-year-old American Jared Donaldson but won 6-7 (2), 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 in a marathon that lasted 4 hours, 19 minutes and featured a couple of underhand serves by the cramping Donaldson. Nishikori got past Benoit Paire of France 6-3, 2-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Among the women, second-round winners included reigning major champions Caroline Wozniacki and Sloane Stephens, along with No. 4 Elina Svitolina, No. 8 Petra Kvitova and No. 13 Madison Keys.