BASTAD, Sweden — Top-ranked Serena Williams advanced to the second round of the Swedish Open by beating Sesil Karatancheva of Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-2 on Tuesday.
Williams broke the 131st-ranked Karatancheva's serve five times to advance at the clay-court tournament on Sweden's west coast.
She will next face 104th-ranked Anna Tatishvili of Georgia, who beat 16-year-old Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Third-seeded Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic, sixth-seeded Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine, Mathilda Johansson of France, Teliana Pereira of Brazil and Richel Hogenkamp of the Netherlands also advanced.
