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Catch up on Day 1 at Roland Garros with Tennis Channel's wrap-up show.

When she imagined walking on court for her first match of 2017, Petra Kvitova thought she might cry. It would have been understandable: the Czech has been away from the game for six months after being attacked in her home, and she spent three of those months wondering whether her wounded left hand would let her play tennis again.

But when the time finally came for Kvitova to make her way onto Court Philippe Chatrier on Sunday, her eyes were dry as she looked around the arena and flashed her trademark wry smile.

“I was just happy to be back,” Kvitova told Tennis Channel.

She was even happier after she hit her first shot of the day. It was a forehand winner. And it was followed, over the course of her 6-3, 6-2 over American Julia Boserup, by 30 more winners.

“I did surprise myself,” Kvitova said. “I was better today than I had been in practices. I’m really happy my shots were there.”

Kvitova had good reason to wonder if they would be. Her hand is still not fully healed from the attack, and she and her doctor agreed beforehand that if she felt any pain, she would stop.

“The last part of the fingers don’t work [yet],” Kvitova said.

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If Kvitova was pleased to be back, the tennis world was just as happy to see her again. One of the most popular players among her peers, she balances her drive for success with an understated, even-keel friendliness. When she screams “POJD!” after winning a point, you know her emotions run deep on court. But she doesn’t let her competitiveness define her or overwhelm the rest of her personality.

Now, at age 27, after surviving a frightening, potentially life-threatening experience, and wondering if she would ever play tennis again, we’ll see where Kvitova’s game and personality take her. Right now opportunities obviously abound for a woman who can hit the ball as well as she does.

“I think I changed as a person,” Kvitova said today. “Maybe this gave me some extra strength.”

Kvitova played with her usual strength on Sunday. Few players on either tour knock off winners as easily and emphatically as she does, and it was good to see her taking her full cuts again. By the end, though, she admitted that she was emotional, and the tears almost started to flow.

Instead of tears, though, we got Kvitova’s smile—the cool, wry, friendly, natural smile that is the true expression of her personality. That’s all we needed.

Kvitova’s ecstatic return and Kerber’s frustrating exit defined Day 1

Kvitova’s ecstatic return and Kerber’s frustrating exit defined Day 1

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If Kvitova was content to return to Chatrier today, one of the women who followed her onto to that court was anything but. It wasn’t the stadium or the crowd or the weather that bothered No. 1 seed Angelique Kerber. It was the surface.

Kerber says she’s a step too slow on clay, and that has certainly been true over the last two years. In 2016, she lost early at every spring clay event, including the French Open, where she went out in the first round. On Sunday she completed an unwelcome repeat of that dismal performance. After losing to 60th-ranked Eugenie Bouchard in Madrid and 68th-ranked Anett Kontaviet in Rome—neither match was close—Kerber made her second-straight opening round exit in Paris. Her 6-2, 6-2 loss to Ekaterina Makarova marked the first time since the Open era began in 1968 that a No. 1 seed on the women’s side has lost in the first round in Paris.

“Unbelievable,” Makarova said when she learned that piece of trivia.

Worse for Kerber is the fact that it wasn’t really a surprise. Makarova is a former Top 10 player who had beaten her four times before, and who has been to the semifinals of the U.S. Open. The two women are both lefties, which made the contrast in their games more obvious, and more painful for Kerber. Makarova is the taller and more powerful player, and she outhit the world No. 1 from start to finish.

In the first set, Makarova played with nothing to lose, while Kerber played as if she was expecting disaster. But even when Kerber dug in during the second set and forced a series of marathon games down the stretch, Makarova was able to shrug off her mounting nerves and maintain the advantage. Whenever she needed a point, she could get it by going on the attack. Kerber couldn’t do the same.

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Kerber says she doesn’t move well on clay, but she also struggles to hit big enough for it. She has become more aggressive in recent years, but at heart she’s a defensive-minded player. While dirt-ballers are stereotyped as dogged retrievers, these days you also need weight on your shots; you need to be able to hit the ball through the court, even when the surface is doing whatever it can to slow the ball down. Serena Williams can do it. Maria Sharapova can do it. Today Makarova could do it. But Kerber struggles to do it. She reached the quarterfinals at the French Open in 2012, but hasn’t been back since.

In theory, Kerber should be pleased not to have to look at a clay court again for a while. Grass, which gives her shots a boost in pace, is more to her liking, and last year she bounced back on that surface quickly enough to reach the Wimbledon final. Will it be so easy for Kerber to do the same again? In 2016, she had won the Australian Open; in 2017, she has yet to win a tournament on any surface. In 2016, she also wasn’t defending runner-up points at Wimbledon.

In other words, from here through through the U.S. Open, where she was the champion last year, Kerber will feel the pressure to do something she hasn’t had to do before 2017: defend big Grand Slam results. On Sunday she didn’t look ready.

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