Bastad, Sweden – Playing her first match since a stunning fourth-round loss at Wimbledon two weeks ago, Serena Williams returned a first-round winner Tuesday at the $235,000 Swedish Open tennis event.
The world No. 1 star trounced Kazakhstan's Sesil Karatantcheva 6-1, 6-2 in 64 minutes on the red clay at Bastad Tennis Stadium.
Williams is now a perfect 24-0 on clay this year and 47-3 overall in 2013, with two of the losses coming at Grand Slam events.
"I'm always happy to get to the next round," Williams said. "It doesn't matter who you play, it's always a really good win to go on and move on, so I'm happy I made it through the match."
The reigning French and U.S. Open champion's second-round opponent will be Georgian Anna Tatishvili.
In other action involving seeds, No. 3 Czech Klara Zakopalova clobbered Swedish wild card Ellen Allgurin 6-1, 6-1, Venezuelan qualifier Andrea Gamiz ousted No. 4 Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova 6-1, 6-3, and No. 6 Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko held off Italian qualifier Anastasia Grymalska 6-3, 5-7, 6-1.
Several other women reached the second round, including 2012 Bastad runner-up Mathilde Johansson and Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru. France's Johansson lost to Slovenian Polona Hercog in last year's finale.
The 2013 Bastad titlist will claim $40,000.
