Paris, France, 28 September 2020 | Leigh Rogers

Daria Gavrilova has made a stunning Grand Slam return in Paris.

The 26-year-old Australian, playing only her second tournament after a year-long lay-off with a foot injury, defeated No.24-seeded Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska 6-4 6-3 in the Roland Garros first round.

It is Gavrilova’s biggest win at a Grand Slam tournament since she beat world No.12 Timea Bacsinszky in the Australian Open third round in 2017. It also snaps a five-match losing streak at majors, stretching back to the US Open in 2018.

Gavrilova handled the cooler conditions in Paris better than her 20-year-old opponent, committing only 16 unforced errors to Yastremska’s 38 in their one hour, 29 minute battle.

The victory sets up a second round clash with Canadian wildcard Eugenie Bouchard.

Gavrilova is the second Australian woman into the second round at Roland Garros, joining Astra Sharma who scored the biggest win of her Grand Slam career earlier on day one.

It was a tough day for Aussie men though, with both No.25-seeded Alex de Minaur and Jordan Thompson eliminated in straight sets.

ROLAND GARROS
Aussies in action, day one results:

Women’s singles, first round
Daria Gavrilova (AUS) d [24] Dayana Yastremska (UKR) 6-4 6-3
[LL] Astra Sharma (AUS) d Anna Blinkova (RUS) 6-3 2-6 7-5
[27] Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS) d Maddison Inglis (AUS) 6-3 6-3
[20] Maria Sakkari (GRE) d Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS) 6-0 7-5

Men’s singles, first round
[Q] Marco Cecchinato (ITA) d [25] Alex de Minaur (AUS) 7-6(9) 6-4 6-0
Radu Albot (MDA) d Jordan Thompson (AUS) 6-2 6-4 6-1