Serena fires warning to Cincy rivals with Gavrilova win

CINCINNATI, OH, USA - Serena Williams fired a warning shot to the rest of the draw at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati on Monday, dismantling Daria Gavrilova in just over an hour in her opening match.

Question marks lingered for Serena’s match fitness after the former World No.1 withdrew from the Rogers Cup in Montreal citing personal reasons, days after suffering the worst defeat of her career to Johanna Konta in San Jose.

Serena erased all doubt in emphatic fashion, firing 27 winners (offset by 14 unforced errors) and eight aces to surge ahead to a 6-1, 6-2 victory.

Read more: Serena on Konta loss: 'I can play a zillion times better'

"I'm feeling pretty good tonight," Serena said afterwards. "It's never easy, no matter what the scoreline says. Definitely felt relaxed after the first break, but it's just the very beginning of the match. You know, you've got to keep going and try to go in for the whole thing."

The American, who has reached the final on her last three visits to Cincinnati - including back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2015 - wasted little time in establishing control of the match against Gavrilova. She got ahead to an early break, and bracketed it with two strong service games - dropping just one point on her serve.

Gavrilova managed to get on board with a service hold, but it did little to stop Serena’s momentum. The former World No.1 never took her foot off the gas pedal, zooming ahead to another break to wrap up the opening set in 28 minutes.

Serena’s improved movement was on display early in the second set with the American chasing down Gavrilova’s dropshots and forcing another early break, at 2-1. She pounced on every short ball and second serve, and was eventually rewarded with another break to extend her lead to 5-2. Serena kept up the pressure until the very last point, clinching her 11th straight Cincy match win in style.

The two-time Cincinnati champion’s reward is a second-round meeting tomorrow with the No.8 seed Petra Kvitova. She leads the pair’s head-to-head record, with five wins for Serena and one for Kvitova and their most recent matchup coming in 2015.

"You know, you've got to be able to go back to back," Serena said of the quick turnaround time. "I don't get byes anymore right now. I'm okay with it. Yeah, just keep playing."