Paolini survives the Yuan challenge to Roland Garros, won the seventh consecutive game

From a historic title on home at home in Rome, the Jasmine Paolini of Italy kept its sequence of victories in progress in the first round of Roland Garros on Sunday – although she had to survive a difficult to prevail.

Roland Garros: Draw | Scores | 411

The seeded n ° 4 Paolini, finalist of the French open of last year, survived the 87th Yuan Yue de China 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 during his opening meeting on the Suzanne-Lenglen court during the second Grand Chelem event of the year.

“It’s great to be back here,” Paolini said in court after his victory. “Last year, playing Roland Garros and the Olympic Games [both here]It is a special place. I love this city, this club, this surface too.

“I hope I will play the next round a little better, and we will see.”

The continuous clay sequence: Back in his career ranking of the world n ° 4, Paolini has now won seven consecutive victories, equaling his best sequence of career victories at the tour of the tour. A little over a week ago, she became the first Italian woman in 40 years to win the Interazionali BNL of Italia title in simple.

Paolini continues to be a strength on the slow red clay recently, after having made his first Grand Colem final at Roland Garros last year. She was the first Italian woman to make a slam final since Flavia Pennetta won the 2015 US Open – and Paolini supported her a few weeks later by doing her second final of the Grand Slam on Wimbledon grass.

Match match: On Sunday, the former top 40 player Yuan aimed to shoot a career record of 0-3 against the 5 best players and to reach the second round of a slam for the second time in 10 main slam prints.

Paolini dominated the first 24 -minute set, but the Chinese player found his shape after that, strengthening his leg game and increasing his assault to get an early break in the second set and finally bind the match.

Yuan continued to break the Crosscourt winners behind Paolini and led by a 3-2 break in the third set. However, Paolini refused to give in and launched a return winner to withdraw the level at 3-3.

This unlocked the best form of the Italian and she did not lose another point in the meeting, wrapping 14 points in a row to repel Yuan’s challenge and win her place in the second round.

“I won the first set fairly easily, then [Yuan] I started playing better, “said Paolini.” Me a bit such, a little emotions and nerves have come out. … I am happy to fight until the end. It was difficult, 3-2 and a break, but I did it. “”

An Australian awaits you: Paolini will have to wait until tomorrow to find out who will be his second round opponent. The Australians Maya Joint and Ajla Tomljanovic should meet for the second time in four days, the winner to face Paolini. It will be Paolini’s first meeting against one or the other of these Australians.

The 19 -year -old joint has just won his first title in simple WTA at WTA 250 Rabat on Saturday and reached a career in career n ° 53 in the updated WTA PIF ranking. Joint progressed after Tomljanovic in the Rabat semi -finals – although they finished only one set before Tomljanovic retired due to an abdominal strain.