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Reuters
Serena Williams won her first match in over a year, beating Spain's Nuria Palisas Diaz 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of the Canadian National Bank Open in Toronto on Monday.
Williams hit her seven aces and after a 79-minute second set she saved seven of her eight break points as she advanced to the second round. . She next faces the winner of Tuesday's match between Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and Tereza Martincova of the Czech Republic.
Williams then said she could see "the light at the end of the tunnel," but showed she still had a match to win on Monday.
{22"But I love to play, so it's great. But you know, I can't do this forever," the 23-time Grand Slam winner told the audience. , it seems like sometimes you just want to enjoy the moment and do the best you can to do the best you can.”
The win was Williams' 35th win in the Canadian Open main draw. Yes, and broke the record tied with Chris Evert.
In Monday's other first-round match, Czech Republic 14th seed Karolina Pliskova defeated compatriot Barbora Krejcikova 6-3, 6-4, while Romania's 15th seed Simona Halep beats Croatia's Donna Vekic. 6-0, 6-2. 16th seed Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) also won her sets in straight sets, beating Ukraine's Anhelina Kalinina 6-4, 6-2.
Other first-round winners included Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and her Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil.
– Field Level Media
