Heather Watson

BBC

Britain's Heather Watson secured a place in the French Open second round for the second successive year, beating world number 83 Elena Vesnina 6-2 6-4, reports the BBC.

The 20-year-old world number 110, who won three qualifying matches to reach round one, broke the Russian twice to take the first set in 30 minutes.

There were five breaks in a fluctuating second set before Watson completed victory in an hour and 22 minutes.

In the second round she will play Julia Goerges after she beat Lucie Hradecka.

Watson, still hoping to earn a place at the Olympics this summer, looked assured from the outset in the sunshine on Court Six.

She forced Vesnina, who reached the final of the WTA Tour event in Budapest last month, into successive errors to create the first break in game four, and a delightful top-spin lob landed on the baseline for 4-1.

Employing a new elevated elbow position in her service action, Watson lost only one point on serve in the first set, and a double-fault from Vesnina put the Briton in control.

Watson's delivery came under pressure in the second set and Vesnina sealed her first break in game three when her opponent fired wide.

But Watson displayed impressive speed to level at 2-2 with a sliding backhand pass and when Vesnina netted to lose serve again, it was 6-2 4-2.

The Russian was far from finished and reeled off some sweetly-hit forehands to level at 4-4.

However, Watson showed superb composure to capture a love hold in game nine before breaking again to book her place against 25th seed Goerges of Germany, who beat Hradecka 7-6 (7-1) 6-4.