Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia made a successful comeback to the WTA 250 tournament in Cleveland on Monday, easily winning 6-3, 6-2 against Czech Linda Fruhvirtova.
The 7th player in the world, seeded N.1 in Ohio, remained on four defeats in the first round in her last four outings.
Her last success dated back to July 6 at Wimbledon when she beat Canadian Leylah Fernandez in the second round.
Despite six double faults and only 61% success on her first serve, Garcia won thanks to three breaks and her winning returns, notably on the second serve (52%) of her young 18-year-old Czech opponent, ranked 55th world.
Garcia will be opposed in the next round to the American Peyton Stearns (58th in the world), victorious by abandonment of the Italian Martina Trevisan (53rd) when she was leading 6-1, 4-5.
The Cleveland tournament is the last trial run before the US Open (August 28-September 10), a Grand Slam where the Lyonnaise reached the semi-finals last year.
The other Frenchwoman engaged on Monday, Clara Burel, for her part lost 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 7-5 against the Chinese Wang Xinyu (56th).
For her part, the young 16-year-old Russian prodigy Mirra Andreeva won in three sets (6-0, 3-6, 7-5) over the German Tamara Korpatsch, who had benefited from the withdrawal of the American Venus Williams, injured in a knee, to integrate the final table.