Serena Williams Will Cruise to Second Career French Open Title

Serena Williams has an easy path toward the 2013 French Open Final and shouldn’t have any trouble winning the second of her career.

Williams, the No. 1 seed at this year’s tournament at Roland Garros, dominated her opponent on Sunday to advance to the second round. Williams defeated Anna Tatishvili in relatively quick fashion, taking the first set 6-0 and the second 6-1.

Williams’ serve was on point against Tatishvili. She had eight aces while her average first serve speed sat at 165 KMH. The tournament’s No. 1 seed also played well defensively, winning 62 percent of her opponent’s serves.

Williams will take on Caroline Garcia in the second round after Garcia took down Yuliya Beygelzimer 6-3, 6-4 to advance. Garcia is now 2-2 on the year playing on clay, winning her first-round matchup at the Family Circle Cup, but losing in the second round and losing in the opening round of the Internationaux de Strasbourg around a week ago.

It’s extremely unlikely that Garcia would be able to upset Williams as she doesn’t have much experience and is going up against one of the best clay players this year—Williams is 16-0 with a trio of tournament victories in 2013 on clay.

After Williams makes quick work of Garcia, she’ll play the winner of Sorana Cirstea and Monica Niculescu or Johanna Larsson—depending on who wins their first-round matchup.

In reality, the only player that Williams has to be careful with in her portion of the bracket is Caroline Wozniacki, the No. 10 seed in the tournament. Williams, though, is 5-1 against Wozniacki in her career and her lone loss was on a hard court, not clay.

Williams won’t have to face Maria Sharapova or Victoria Azarenka, the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds at Roland Garros, until the final—if either even make it that far, which certainly isn’t guaranteed.

Williams just can’t allow a fluke match to happen, like it has so often for her at the French Open in the past. Williams only has one title at Roland Garros in her career and that came all the way back in 2002. She hasn’t made it past the quarterfinals since 2003.

Last year, Williams was upset in the first round of the tournament. She wasn’t the No. 1 seed, she was actually No. 5 at the time, but the loss was still more than embarrassing.

Per The Sporting News:

"

I feel like last year wasn’t so good for me. But this year I’ve got nothing to lose. If I win one round I’m going to gain points and confidence so I feel really, really good about that.

I feel good. I feel really confident. I feel really happy. That’s important to feel coming into a tournament but I don’t feel over-confident.

"

In her career, she’s now 40-10 at the French Open, but is looking to turn things around with a big run in 2013.

Williams’ success on clay this season should keep anyone from thinking her French Open struggles will continue again this time around. As previously mentioned, Williams is undefeated on clay on the year, winning the Family Circle Open, Madrid Open and the Rome Open.

For those doubting Williams, she’s already further than she was a year ago. That counts for something, right? An exit in the second round would be just as disappointing, but that is unlikely, as previously stated.

If Williams can continue what she’s done on clay already this year and play like she did on Sunday, there’s no question that she would win her second French Open title. Anything can happen—and she’ll be the first to tell you that—but this Grand Slam is Williams' for the taking.