The meeting between the 23-time grand slam champion and Margarita Gasparjan from Russia was over in just over 90 minutes.
But behind the victory numbers 6–2, 6–4 hides an unexpectedly hard second set, where Williams could only win when Gasparjan accounted for a couple of misses in the last game.
- I'm just happy to have moved on and will try to focus on the next match, Williams says in the victory interview.
There, in the third round, awaits compatriot Sloane Stephens, who won the tournament in 2017.
- She is such a good player.
It never looks strenuous, and then, bang, she's hit five winning strokes.
She's won here before, and she's defeated me, so she knows how to play well.
Third-seeded Williams - who is chasing Australian Margaret Court's record of 24 singles titles in the grand slam - could also state that two highly seeded players in her half of the game went out already during the rainy Thursday night.
Ninth-seeded British Johanna Konta fell to unseeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea, who went on to win 2–6, 7–6, 6–4.
And Victoria Azarenka, a two-time finalist in New York, defeated fifth-seeded Aryna Sabalenka in a full Belarusian meeting.