Venus Williams was made to battle for her spot in the second round as she was pushed to a third and deciding set against Paula Ormaechea.
The former world number one and Grand Slam champion has been away from the game since the U.S. Open last year as she he been struggling with Sjogren's Syndrome.
She made her return back in March but it was a rusty opening set from Williams as errors littered her game.
But Ormaechea took her game to Williams in that opening set putting herself in the driving seat when she took the first set 6-4.
But Williams began to eradicate the errors in that second set as started hitting winners to take greater control of the match.
She dropped just a single game in that second set it looked like the writing was one the wall for Ormaechea.
But the Argentine was not done battling as they traded breaks twice, both unable to consolidate the chances they had carved out.
But it was Williams who struck in the seventh game to break again to lead 4-3 and this time she was able to hold her own serve to edge even further ahead at 5-3.
And Ormaechea was unable to hold onto her serve in the ninth game as Williams broke again to seal the match 4-6 6-1 6-3 and book her spot in the second round.
Williams now awaits the winner of the match between third seed Agnieszka Radwanska and Bojana Jovanovski.
Former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, seeded twenty sixth, was also in action yesterday as she dispatched Mirjana Lucic for the loss of just four games.
The Russian always seems comfortable on the red stuff and she sealed a 6-1 6-3 win and will now face Yung-Jan Chan who came through 6-1 7-6 (10-8) against Kateryna Bondarenko.
Ana Ivanovic was another former champion who was also in action on day one as she blasted past Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino from Spain.
The thirteenth seed made light work of the Spaniard and dropped just two games in a 6-1 -1 drumming to book her spot in the second round.
She will now face Shahar Pee who came through 6-2 6-2 against Stephanie Dubois.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
by Helen Earnshaw
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