'It's good to be back:' Serena eases to victory in Rome return

Serena Williams made a winning return from injury beating Swedish qualifier Rebecca Petersen 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the second round of the Italian Open clay-court tournament on Monday.

Williams, 37, has not played since a hard-fought three-set win over Petersen in the second round at the Miami Open in March before withdrawing with a knee injury.

The 23-time Grand Slam winner -- now ranked 11th -- also withdrew from Indian Wells in March complaining of illness.

Watched by her husband Alexis Ohanian, Williams sealed victory on her second match point against her 64th-ranked opponent after 76 minutes on court in the tournament which acts as a warm-up for the French Open in two weeks' time.

"I felt good, I wasn't sure how it was going to feel," said Williams, who hit 10 aces.

"It's been a while, I haven't played a ton of matches this year, not by choice, just by force.

"I really, really, actually desperately wanted to be on the tour and to be playing, but it hasn't been able to work out.

"It felt good to finally be back out. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up.

"I got here pretty early really, I wanted to get used to the conditions and 'real clay' and it was good I did...