Serena cruises to victory in 2020 debut from Auckland

It took a few games to shake off the cobwebs, but Serena was in fine form during her 6-3, 6-2 victory over Camila Giorgi.

The Italian came out firing, and for a brief moment was hitting clean winners from all over the court. Once Serena adjusted to Giorgi’s unrelenting pace the rest of the match was just a formality.

The 23-time major champ had not played a singles match since her US Open final loss to Bianca Andreescu, but was seen putting in the hard yards with Patrick Mouratoglou during the offseason.

Her serve, the greatest weapon the women’s game has seen, was as good as ever. Serena served nearly 75% of first serves throughout the match, racking up eight aces.

Getty Images

“I feel pretty good,” Serena said in her post-match interview.  “I’ve always had really tough matches against (Giorgi), but I think playing doubles yesterday helped, I was able to get used to the conditions.”

Serena will face the winner of Americans Christina McHale and Ann Li in the second round. If both Serena and Coco Gauff win their second rounds, they will face off in a highly anticipated quarterfinal matchup.