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Australian No.1 Alex de Minaur is the first man through to the French Open second round following a straight-sets win over Italian Stefano Travaglia.
Alex de Minaur is starting to find his feet on clay, safely through to the French Open second round for only the second time in five trips to Paris.
De Minaur made surprisingly light work of Stefano Travaglia, sweeping past the Italian 6-2 6-4 7-6 (7-4) to be the first Australian winner in the men's draw this campaign following first-round exits for Jordan Thompson and Chris O'Connell and John Millman's injury-enforced withdrawal.
With de Minaur's 1-4 winning record at the red-dirt major easily his worst of the four grand slams, Travaglia - on paper - posed a serious threat to the Australian No.1 after reaching the third round last year at Roland Garros.
He surprised former grand-slam finalist Kei Nishikori before the great Rafael Nadal ended his inspired run.
De Minaur lost in straight sets to Travaglia's countryman Marco Cecchinato in his opener in last year's rescheduled November Open, but he never looked like falling victim to another Italian job on Tuesday.
"I'm actually very happy with that win. It's a very tricky match and coming in I obviously had a lot of respect for him and respect for this match," de Minaur said.
"I knew it was a very complicated match where I think I handled my side of the court exactly how I needed to.
"I got the job done, weathered the storm at times and managed to beat a hard claycourter so happy with that."
Relishing the hotter and faster conditions in summer-time Paris, as opposed to his wintry effort six months ago, de Minaur powered through the first set with three service breaks.
With a clear game plan to keep points short, the 2020 US Open quarter-finalist continued playing aggressively to keep Travaglia on the back foot.
Seeded 21st, de Minaur won 72 per cent of one-to-four-shot rallies but lost more than half of any points that stretched beyond five exchanges.
The 78th-ranked Travaglia knew his only hope was to extend the points and outslug the lightly-framed Australian from the baseline.
But unforced errors ultimately proved the Italian's downfall, with de Minaur prevailing after two hours and 28 minutes.
"Especially here at Roland Garros, getting a good start is such a big important step so I'm very happy I was able to start well and get that two-sets-to-love lead and scrape that third set," de Minaur said.
"It's all about slowly trying to feel better and better on the clay and here at the French so I'm happy to get a win under my belt and build confidence through it."
The 22-year-old's reward is an intriguing second-round rematch on Thursday with Cecchinato, a semi-finalist in 2017 after ending Novak Djokovic's title defence that year.
